Formatia trans sicere educatorum
by civillove
Summary: Chrissie Howe is pleased that her gun happy thug brother is in jail. But what happens when she takes a family heirloom to Ben Gates to figure out its significance? RileyOC AbiBen: more info inside
1. The Locket

Title: Formatia trans sicere educatorum

Pairing: RileyOC, BenAbigail

Rating: Pg-15

Summary: Chrissie Howe is pleased that her gun happy thug brother is in jail. But what happens when she takes a family heirloom to Ben Gates to figure out its significance? Ian Howe is royally pissed. Can Ben, Abigail and Riley help her find the treasure before Ian?

Spoilers: Through the second National Treasure, which means Ben and Abi are married.

Disclaimer: The disclaimer says I can't own Riley, or National Treasure. Didn't say I couldn't kidnap him though although Chrissie Howe is mine.

0o0o0o0

Chapter 1: The Locket

Christina Howe looked through her jewelry case for something to wear to Ian's hearing. It had been the third hearing she had to go to and she kept wondering why she bothered on going. Ben Gates and that dork of an assistant always showed up to throw Ian right back in jail anyways. Honestly, she was happy Ian was in jail. She never suspected him of being a gun toting manic but it happened that he proved her wrong. It was sad really, he was the only family she had left and now he was in jail.

She shook her head and closed the box. She put on her black heels that went nicely with her black knee length skirt and grey button up. She felt like her clothes were choking her. She rarely dressed up even though she and Ian were rich. It felt too constricting and she felt comfortable with jeans and a band tee shirt along with people not knowing she had a lot of money. As she slipped on her grey rain coat she stopped by her mother's room to look for a necklace.

She tried not going in there since her mother died of cancer not too long ago. She remembered waiting at the funeral for Ian to show up, but he never did. She guessed it was when he was betraying Ben Gates up at the Charlotte.

As she passed through her mother's room and opened up her jewelry cabinet, her blue eyes recognized something shining near the bedside table. Chrissie kneeled down near the bedside and picked up a silver locket next to the lamp. She blew the dust off it and ran her fingers over the front of the locket. She squinted at the worn down surface and tried to pick up the symbol. It looked like an Egyptian hieroglyph, but she'd have to consult an expert to make sure.

She stood and walked over to the mirror and placed the locket around her neck and flipped her golden brown hair aside. She looked just like her mother. Chrissie needed to figure out what that symbol meant and what it led to; and she knew exactly who to ask.

0o0o0o0o0o

"Can you remind me why we have to show up for these hearings?" Riley Poole asked rudely from the passenger seat.

"Unless you want Ian getting out of jail and try to kill us…" Ben Gates trailed off and glanced at Riley, who had fear in his eyes and shook his head.

"I just don't see why I have to be there." He grumbled putting his knees against the dash. "Especially since his creepy sister shows up too."

"Oh come on Riley, you've met Christina before. She's nothing like Ian." He turned the car sharply, making Riley grab onto the seat.

Riley gave Ben a doubtful stare. "I've taken Geosciencebefore Ben, and I know for a fact that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. Especially if they're on the same branch."

Ben just shook his head and pulled into the court house parking lot. He knew Riley couldn't really judge people well, so he just let it slide. Besides, he had a feeling the whole Christina bashing was more than just the fact she was Ian Howe's sister.

0o0o0o0o0o

Through the whole entire hearing, Riley couldn't stop staring at Christina. She was honestly beautiful and if it wasn't for her being related to Ian he would have gone for it. Deep down he knew Ben was right; Ian and Christina were really nothing alike. She didn't have a strong accent like Ian did and her hair was a darker brown. She had beautiful blue eyes…and that's when Riley rolled his and looked away. If he kept referring to the enemy as beautiful he was gonna have trouble denying anything she might ask. He learned the hard way that that's how people got hurt.

The hearing ended and Ian was guilty again, not that riley was surprised. He tried stealing the Declaration of Independence and tried to kill them. Not to mention Abigail and Patrick, Ben's father.

Riley saw Chrissie hug Ian and he made comment about something around her neck, but he couldn't understand what it was. She saw her motion over to Ben and he stood thinking she was going to attack him or something. Riley motioned Ben towards the exit but to no avail; she had gotten right in front of them.

"Mr. Gates?" She asked and naturally Ben stopped.

"Yes, Ms. Howe?" Ben asked nicely.

It made Riley give him a questioning look, which Ben ignored.

"Call me Chrissie." She stuck out her hand and Ben took it and shook it lightly.

Riley shook his head almost insistently. When they moved onto first names it meant she was trying to be friendly. And that way it was harder to tell when she'd try to kill them. Although if he told Ben this he'd just tell him he was paranoid. Which Riley knew he was, after all Ian had _tried_ to kill them.

"I was wondering if you could take a look at this." She unclasped her necklace and handed it to Ben which caught Riley's interest.

"Look's old." Riley said stupidly. He honestly didn't know what else to say. He shook his head; he never got so nervous around anyone.

"Is this Egyptian?" Ben asked.

She nodded. "I think so, but I wasn't sure."

Riley took it from Ben and adjusted his glasses. He could feel her eyes on him and it made him even more edgy. "It's Egyptian. It looks like a windpipe and a heart."

"Which means?" Ben asked. He hated when Riley tried to draw things out.

"Goodness and Beauty."

"It's been passed down through my family."

"Hmm, I wonder how you're family got a hold of it." Riley mumbled.

His side comment didn't go unnoticed when Ben nudged him in the side.

"It wasn't stolen if that's what you mean." She replied icily and turned her attention back to Ben. "My mother didn't have a chance to give it to me when she died suddenly of cancer. I found it this morning."

"I'm sorry." Ben consoled and Riley started to feel guilty for the comment he made earlier.

"Its ok, it was a month or two ago. But anyway I heard stories that my grandmother used to tell. She used to say it led to a treasure somewhere but it was never found."

"Does it open?" Ben asked suddenly.

Chrissie shrugged. "I never tried to—"

Her sentence was cut short when Ben suddenly popped it open. A lot of dust and dirt fell from the locket; it was if it'd been in the ground before she had brought it to them. Ben blew into the locket to reveal an inscription written inside, along with a picture of what looked like a goddess of Ancient Egypt.

"It looks like Isis." Riley said quietly.

"Who's Isis?" Chrissie asked leaning closer to the locket. Riley felt uncomfortable and stepped a place back which she noticed.

"Isis was the wife of Osiris, or the god of the underworld. She's depicted on coffins as a way to ward off evil."

"The inscription says, "Formatia trans sicere educatorum." Ben said and closed the locket.

"Enter all ye who seek knowledge." Chrissie said excitedly. Maybe the story her grandma always told her was true.

Riley shook his head at her. "How could you know that but you didn't know who Isis was."

She looked at him angrily. "Well I guess not everyone can be as smart as you."

Riley looked entertained and was about to add another snide remark when Ben stopped the argument before it got any worse. "Did you want to find the treasure Chrissie? See if it exists?" He asked walking out of the court house to his car.

She nodded. "If it exists, nothing would make my family happier."

Riley nodded. "Yeah I'm sure. Finding and taking treasure seems to be what her family does. Not to mention trying to _kill_ us during it." He couldn't believe Ben was actually falling for beautiful blue eyes and a stupid locket.

"Riley." Ben grit out.

"First of all, I had _nothing_ to do with what Ian did. I was too busy trying to bury my mother." She suddenly felt the urge to smack this Riley guy.

He felt the guilt seep in again and ignored it by getting in the car. If he pissed her off too much she'd just take the locket and find someone else to help her. And that would make Ben pissed at him.

"Why don't you come to dinner at my house tonight. We can discuss what the plan's going to be."

Riley shook his head. Yes, that is exactly what they needed to do. Invite the enemy into your million dollar home so she could see all the stuff she could steal.

Chrissie nodded and let Ben hang onto the locket. "Alright sounds great."

Riley suddenly laid on the horn and motioned for Ben to get in. She couldn't wait, as long as that idiot Riley wasn't going to be there. Although as she got in her car as well, she couldn't deny the beautiful ice blue eyes he had.

0o0o0o0o0

please r&r. this is the first national treasure story i've done. how is it so far?


	2. Dinner

Title: Formatia trans sicere educatorum

Pairing: RileyOC, BenAbigail

Rating: Pg-15

Summary: Chrissie Howe is pleased that her gun happy thug brother is in jail. But what happens when she takes a family heirloom to Ben Gates to figure out its significance? Ian Howe is royally pissed. Can Ben, Abigail and Riley help her find the treasure before Ian?

Spoilers: Through the second National Treasure, which means Ben and Abi are married.

Disclaimer: The disclaimer says I can't own Riley, or National Treasure. Didn't say I couldn't kidnap him though although Chrissie Howe is mine.

0o0o0o0

Chapter 2: Dinner

Chrissie tried adjusting her olive green peasant skirt after she rang the doorbell at the Gate's house. She felt a bit underdressed standing there in a semi-dressy camisole, a peasant skirt and high heeled boots; even though she hadn't seen what everyone else was wearing. At least her hair was in tight curls and was pulled back halfway in a barrette. She heard someone approach the door and smiled sweetly.

Although her smile faded when she realized it was that asshole Riley. "Ah, suddenly I don't feel like the idiot who underdressed." She commented looking up and down his form. He was wearing dark jeans, a black tee and an olive green hoodie over top.

"Hahaha…" he mocked and then tried to shut the door.

She caught it with her hand before he could close it all the way and pushed it back open.

"Chrissie you're here." Ben said and smiled giving her a hug. Riley rolled his eyes and shut the door. He turned in time to see Abigail give her a big welcome and a hug also. It made him wonder if _everyone_ was drunk except for him. This was Ian's sister for Christ's sake, not a best friend of the family they'd known for years.

"Riley, take Chrissie's coat." Ben said.

Riley just looked at Ben with an irritated _Are you serious? _look. Ben's eyes widened and seemed to tell Riley that if he wasn't polite he was getting smacked along side the head.

Riley adjusted his hoodie and motioned for Chrissie to turn around. She did so and he pulled off her coat and gained a glance at her bare back. Her camisole was in a design on the back and it tied around her lower back. All of the top of her back along with her shoulders were bare and all her could do was stare at her for moment. Her skin looked soft and from the fragrance coming from her coat he could tell she smelled like honeysuckles and cinnamon.

Riley shook his head and placed her coat in the closet. Now on top of the fact he thought she was beautiful, she smelled great too. He needed to sit as far away from her as possible at dinner.

0o0o0o0o0o

"You have a beautiful house Mr. Gates." Chrissie commented and sipped her wine.

"Call me Ben." He motioned for her to sit in one of the arm chairs in the lounge room. It wasn't quite time to eat yet so Ben had taken all of them to sit in there with their wines.

"So did you find anything on the necklace?" she asked setting her glass down.

"We just got it today." Riley said. What did she think they were machines or something?

"Riley, why don't you help me in the kitchen?" Abigail asked getting up.

Riley nodded and followed her leaving Ben and Chrissie to talk.

"How long as it been in your family?"

"Since my great, great, great grandmother. Maybe even before that. I'm guessing earlier since the story's been passed down right with it."

Ben nodded and was about to say something further when Riley came in announcing dinner was ready. Dinner was mostly quiet except for some comments about her locket and Chrissie making more inferences to the house and its beauty.

"So Chrissie, how did Ian take it when you told him you were letting Ben look over your locket?" Riley asked sitting back in his chair.

"Honestly, he wasn't too happy about it. But he's in jail so I figure…"

"That he'll just call someone else to kill us. Great."

"Riley." Ben said quietly. He couldn't believe he was still on this.

"What? It's not like her brother and/or family member tried to blow us up in a snow buried ship or anything." He replied sarcastically.

"I lit the flare remember? My fault." Ben rubbed his temples.

Riley stood and made a 'small amount' inference with his fingers. "Little, insignificant details Ben!"

Chrissie followed Riley back into the lounge room, near the fireplace. "I can't believe you still blame me for trying to kill you on a boat."

"It was a ship!" He didn't even know why he was making such a big deal about this.

She couldn't believe that someone she hardly knew could get her so angry. She inched closer to him. "Well excuse me, sounds like I didn't know that because I wasn't _there_!"

Riley edged closer to her. "My point is that you and Ian are exactly alike."

"You can't--" Chrissie stopped suddenly and realized how close their faces were. When she looked at him up close, he wasn't that bad. She did like the features he had. The glasses which held beautiful blue eyes, ruffled brown hair and rugged shaved features. All in all Riley Poole was attractive; the only thing was that he was a definite asshole.

Riley must have realized how close they had gotten and pulled away before she did. Although the difference was he was blushing which made Chrissie smile a little.

Before she could comment, Ben and Abigail came into the room. "Chrissie, your brother's escaped from prison."

0o0o0o00o

"What?" Riley and Chrissie said simultaneously.

"Sandusky called and told me. Said we should up security."

"Which is just a little too late for that Ben."

Ben turned and saw Ian enter the room with three guys holding pistols. Chrissie gasped and out of instinct grabbed Riley's hand. It was until she noticed him trying to pull away did she let go.

"Where's the necklace Chrissie?" Ian asked walking towards her.

"I don't know Ian." She replied. Riley noticed her voice was shaking and he hadn't realized that her brother had the same effect on her like he did on everyone else.

Ian grabbed her wrist and pulled her towards him. "You had it today at the court house, how can you not know?"

Chrissie winced as Ian turned her wrist in his hands.

"Ian, I have the locket." Ben said making Ian let Chrissie go. He pushed her in the general direction of Riley and he caught her in his arms as she was shoved foreword. She stayed there for a moment and she felt Riley bring his arms up around her and she smiled at the protective gesture. Even though he let go when he realized what he was doing.

"And it's where Ben? I don't have time to play you're childish puzzles."

"Yeah I guess not, since you're supposed to be in prison and all." Riley quipped.

"It's in a safe place. You do know that the police our on their way. I'm guessing you broke in through an upstairs window… which have silent alarms on them."

Riley smiled as Ian took in what Ben was saying and tried to make his way past him. Although Riley forgot he had three gun crazy assistants with him, so Ian made it out the front door.

"Ben I'm so—" Chrissie tried to apologize but was cut off by Riley.

"Did I not _say_ this was going to happen?" He questioned Ben and Abi angrily. "I can not believe he is trying to kill us _again_. And I wonder who tipped him off."

Chrissie looked up from the floor to find all eyes on her. "You can't honestly think…"

"Oh, I honestly do. Actually I _honestly_ thought this five hours ago. It's the only way he knew you were going to be here." Riley turned and pointed rudely at her as he spoke.

"Riley, knock it off. Ian would have come here anyways. He knew Chrissie was asking for my help and he assumed I'd have the locket. Which I do." Ben said trying to get these two to stop fighting for five minutes. It was odd really; some part of them reminded Ben of him and Abigail back when they were stealing the Declaration. And look where they were now.

Abigail clasped Ben's hand and looked towards Chrissie. "Well I'll make up the guest room. Chrissie you'll be staying with us."

Riley's head shot in Abigail's direction. "What?!"

"Safety reasons Riley, the same reason why you're staying here too."

Riley shook his head. "Huh uh. You are not sticking me in the house with gun crazy's sister."

Chrissie ignored him; she just didn't want to impose. "Mrs. Gates, I really don't want to impose on you and Ben."

"Call me Abi." She said walking up the stairs. "And Riley stays here all the time. You're not imposing."

"Thanks Abigail, now if she doesn't find me at my apartment she'll come here and kill me." Riley said shoving his hands into his hoodie.

Ben shrugged and led Chrissie to her room. Maybe if Chrissie kidnapped Riley to kill him she'd at least duct tape his mouth shut.

0o0o0o0o

R&R? i hope it's going well...thanks for reading


	3. The Library

Title: Formatia trans sicere educatorum

Pairing: RileyOC, BenAbigail

Rating: Pg-15

Summary: Chrissie Howe is pleased that her gun happy thug brother is in jail. But what happens when she takes a family heirloom to Ben Gates to figure out its significance? Ian Howe is royally pissed. Can Ben, Abigail and Riley help her find the treasure before Ian?

Spoilers: Through the second National Treasure, which means Ben and Abi are married.

Disclaimer: The disclaimer says I can't own Riley, or National Treasure. Didn't say I couldn't kidnap him though although Chrissie Howe is mine.

0o0o0o0

Chapter 3: The Library

Riley rolled around in bed and glanced over at his clock. It was nearing three A.M and he guessed everyone was asleep by now. For some reason he couldn't get Ian and his friends out of his head. He kept thinking that he was going to turn over and try and kill him, or Chrissie would. He had made her pretty pissed after dinner.

He shook his head and crawled out of bed and slipped his glasses on, along with his slippers and made his way downstairs. If he ate breakfast now, he could be first in the shower when everyone was waking up.

As he neared the kitchen, he saw the light was on and crept slowly in the room. The thoughts of Ian were blown away when he saw Chrissie sitting there in her pajamas listening to her Ipod. When she didn't recognize his entrance Riley stood there for a moment debating whether to head back upstairs or not. He had to admit she looked adorable sitting there in striped cotton pants with a grey cami and her hair in a messy ponytail. He guessed Abigail had let her borrow some of her clothes until she could get her own and bring them back to the house.

She turned and got up suddenly and pulled the earphones from her ears. "Geez creeper, why don't you stand a little closer and stare."

"I wasn't staring." Riley rolled his eyes, although as he reached into the cabinet for cereal he realized he kinda had been. He fished around in the cabinet and looked around for a moment, until he saw the cereal box next to Chrissie's Ipod.

"What did you try and figure out what cereal I liked and decided to eat half of it?" He asked emptying the rest of the box into a bowl for himself.

She smiled. "Yes, that is exactly what I did." He rolled his eyes at her remark. She couldn't exactly place why she loved making him angry.

Riley grabbed the milk and poured it and sat there munching on his cereal. The kitchen became annoyingly quiet and he damned his inability to be a conversation starter. Every time he found something he wanted to say he realized it was something about Ian. Asking Chrissie whether or not Ian was dropped on his head a few times as a child did not seem like a good opening question.

"Can't you sleep?" He asked.

She shook her head. "I have insomnia."

He smiled. "How lovely for you. Do you aggravate everybody else with your annoying music and cereal taking when you're around other people?"

Chrissie glared at him, but found his wise ass smile to be adorable. "First of all, The Shins are not annoying."

"That what?"

"The Shins, it's a band. And second of all I did not take all your cereal."

"I believe you emptied the box." Riley shifted in his seat, bringing the bowl closer to his mouth. "You're like a giant cereal monster."

Chrissie stifled a giggle and pulled a full box of cereal from down next to her chair. "Here you go whiner. I'm going to bed."

Riley shook his head and took the cereal box from her as she left. And no matter what he did, he couldn't stop the smile that slowly crept onto his face.

0o0o0o0o0o

Chrissie placed her Ipod back into her purse and laid back in bed. Was she just flirting with Riley Poole downstairs? Ignorant ass Riley Poole? She shook her head and tried to focus on something that was actually important. She still couldn't believe Ian was out of jail and had tried to kill Ben and the others again.

She felt guilty. She should have never approached Ben with that locket and she contemplated just giving it to Ian so he'd leave Abi and Ben alone. They were nice people, some of the nicest she'd ever known. If anything happened to them it'd be her fault. And that was something she didn't think she could bear.

As she started to fall asleep, she started thinking about Riley again and that stupid angry look on his face. She smiled thinking what his face would look like when she woke up early to take the shower from him.

0o0o0o0o0o

"Chrissie I demand you open the door!" Riley banged on the door loudly this time. He didn't care who he woke.

Chrissie smiled. "What Riley? I can't understand you." She turned on the shower and stepped in.

"Can't understand me? You're _responding_!" Riley banged on the door and saw Ben come out of his bedroom looking at him confused and groggily.

"Riley what are you doing? It's nine in the morning."

Riley pointed at the door. "Talk to her. She's the one in the shower when I should be."

"It's not a timed schedule Riley." Ben rolled his eyes and passed Chrissie's bedroom and headed down the stairs.

"I don't like her Ben." Riley stated, following him.

"Why? Because she's the only person who makes her bed in the house?"

"No because she sits up at three AM eating people's cereal, taking people's shower time and blasting The Shins until she's gone deaf. What is that?" Riley couldn't understand why he was getting so angry and jittery about this.

Ben took a good look at Riley. "Shins is a band yes?" Riley just shook his head and rubbed his hand over his face. "How much coffee have you had this morning?"

"None." Riley took a seat and Ben got him a cup of coffee.

"What's going on Riley?"

"I don't know. I just think that Chrissie shouldn't be here. I mean if she's a target for Ian, why are we making ourselves the target too?"

"You sure that's it?" Ben asked sensing there was more to this whole Chrissie thing than Riley was letting on. "Sure you're not complaining a lot because….you like her?"

"That is…ridiculous." Riley shook his head but couldn't ignore the fluttering pit in his stomach. He swore if he ever got his hands on those butterflies hiding in his stomach he'd strangle them. "I actually think I'm offended."

Ben nodded and Riley knew he could see right through him. "Right ok."

Thank god at that moment Chrissie walked into the kitchen drying her hair with her towel. "Shower's free Riley."

He nodded. "Wow thank you." He muttered sarcastically.

"There might be enough warm water."

Riley refused to reply what his tongue threatened to and headed up the stairs. He passed her room and a small smile played on his face as he got the perfect way to get back at her.

0o0o0o0o0o

Abigail walked around the table and passed the bacon to Ben. "As soon as Riley's out of the shower we can head over to the library to research your locket."

Chrissie nodded, nursing a cup of now cold coffee. "What if Ian's doing the same thing?"

"Sandusky called this morning and told me that Ian's guys were seen heading out of the state. They weren't sure whether Ian was with them or not but they're keeping a look out."

"I'll just go grab my purse so I'll be already when Riley's done."

Ben nodded and she headed up the stairs and heard the shower turn off. She grabbed her purse and stopped suddenly when she noticed it felt a little light. She looked through it and realized that her Ipod was gone. For a moment she started to panic and search the room high and low for where she could have put it. But she was sure she put it back in her purse, which only left one explanation.

She pounded on the bathroom door and Riley opened it on the third loud thump. Chrissie just stared at him a moment and she wasn't looking at his face. He was just wrapped in a towel and his skin was glistening from the steam of the shower. She couldn't help the butterflies that filled her stomach and she tried to settle them down.

"Where's my Ipod Riley?"

He shrugged and that's when she noticed his glasses weren't on either. "You lost it?" His voice was innocent and smug.

"You _took_ it!"

"You're assuming I took it." Riley stated heading to his room.

"Yeah and guess who's the ass out of that joke?"

Riley went into his room and stopped her before she could enter. "Well since you're missing the Ipod, I'm guessing that would be you." He smiled and shrugged before shutting the door in her face.

She sighed angrily and headed down the stars. Screw killing off the butterflies in her stomach, she was gonna kill him.

0o0o0o0o0o

The ride to the library was surprisingly quiet. Riley guessed it was because Chrissie was pissed he'd taken her Ipod, and until she apologized for the shower he wasn't giving it back.

Ben pulled into the parking lot and handed Chrissie her locket as she slammed the car door shut.

"Abigail and I are going to head over to the museum and look for the curator. He's new and an expert on ancient Egypt. Why don't you look around here with Riley and try to place your locket in a time period or something that connects it to a country or state."

She nodded at Ben's orders and placed her locket into her pocket.

"Riley has our cell numbers if you find anything."

They pulled from the parking lot and Chrissie zipped up her small black hoodie against the cold rainy weather. She followed Riley through the back of the library since he seemed like he knew where he was going.

"Let me see the locket." He asked her and she pulled it out of her pocket and handed it to him.

It was kind of odd seeing her not try and fight with him. And for a moment he actually felt guilty about taking her Ipod.

"You're looking in the wrong book stupid." She commented. He'd accidentally picked up ancient Greece instead of ancient Egypt. Never mind, he never felt happier in his life.

"Wow, I'm glad you can read book covers." Riley remarked picking up the right book.

"Can I have my Ipod back now?" It actually sounded like a plea but he wasn't falling for it.

"Get a book and start reading."

She rolled her head to the side and picked up another book in the ancient Egypt section and flipped it open.

An hour later piles of books were on the table they were sitting at. Riley took off his glasses and ran a hand over his face.

"I think I found something." Chrissie said and Riley stood and circled the table to look at her book. He couldn't determine whether he was relieved he didn't have to stare at pages anymore or annoyed that he hadn't found information before her.

"I was looking at certain tombs where there might have been statues of Isis and there was one at King Tut's tomb that was built larger than any other statue."

She pointed to the page and he leaned in to look at it and read from the page. "Located in Thebes Egypt, King Tut's tomb has the largest Isis statue recorded in history. It'd said that Isis was carved by priests instead of its original builders and that there was a special key that would open the center of Isis."

"The opening's big enough that if you stepped through it, there was a treasure inside."

Riley nodded and glanced at the picture next to the text. "And look at the side wall next to the sarcophagus."

Chrissie leaned in and looked along where Riley had told her to. "It's a picture of my locket."

"Yatzee." Riley said quietly leaning back. "I'm gonna call Ben, get that page photocopied."

Chrissie nodded and took the book to the closest photocopier. She waited for the pages to load into the machine and stood listening to it scan the book. She was about to go and look for Riley and see what was taking him so long when she turned and saw he was trapped between two of Ian's men.

Chrissie grabbed the book and tried to turn away from where Riley and Ian's men were but she slammed into someone on the way. She looked up and dropped the book.

"Where's the locket sister?"

0o0o0o0o0o

i hope everyone is enjoying! are the characters alright?


	4. To the Airport

Title: Formatia trans sicere educatorum

Pairing: RileyOC, BenAbigail

Rating: Pg-15

Summary: Chrissie Howe is pleased that her gun happy thug brother is in jail. But what happens when she takes a family heirloom to Ben Gates to figure out its significance? Ian Howe is royally pissed. Can Ben, Abigail and Riley help her find the treasure before Ian?

Spoilers: Through the second National Treasure, which means Ben and Abi are married.

Disclaimer: The disclaimer says I can't own Riley, or National Treasure. Didn't say I couldn't kidnap him though although Chrissie Howe is mine.

0o0o0o0

Chapter 4: To the Airport

_Chrissie grabbed the book and tried to turn away from where Riley and Ian's men were but she slammed into someone on the way. She looked up and dropped the book._

"_Where's the locket sister?"_

0o0o0o0o

"I don't have the locket Ian. Why would I bring it with me when I knew you'd be after it?" Chrissie couldn't exactly explain the words coming out of her mouth. She knew they were stupid though because she _had_ brought the locket with her.

Ian grabbed her shoulders roughly and shook her. "I'm asking you one more time or I swear to god you'll get a bullet in your head Chrissie. Or Riley over there, probably both of you."

Chrissie felt tears pool her eyes as Ian leaned closer to her and dug his fingers into her shoulders. This couldn't have been her brother. Riley suddenly spoke up from where he was standing.

"Chrissie its ok, just tell him where the locket is." She turned to look at him and he nodded reassuringly. "It's ok."

She nodded. "It's back at the Gate's house. It's in my room."

Ian nodded and let go of her shoulders. "It better be. Or I'm coming after you Chrissie. Only you."

She saw Riley being let go by Ian's men and they left as quickly as they showed up. Chrissie sank into the chair near the table and Riley came to stand next to her. Luckily her brother believed her poker face and headed out to the Gates leaving them unarmed. Although Riley highly doubted he'd open fire in a public library.

Riley noticed her head was still down. "It's ok, I'll call Ben and he can call Sandusky and they'll up security at the Gate's house. Your brother will never get past the gate. Plus, I've got the locket in my pocket remember?"

She just nodded and never picked her head up. "He's not my brother." She answered quietly.

0o0o0o0o

Chrissie was quiet the entire car ride back to the Gates. She couldn't even tell Ben the information she had found at the library, Riley had to. He honestly was worried about her; she didn't even look at him or anything in the car. She just blankly stared out the window. He wanted to grab her hand and squeeze it gently but he didn't want her to start flipping out at him. Although at least if she was yelling at him he would know she was ok.

So he slowly moved his hand across the leather and clasped her hand giving it a slight squeeze. It got her attention and she looked down at his hand holding her own. But she didn't yell or pull back; she just held his tightly and gave him a small smile. That's when he confirmed she definitely wasn't all right.

0o0o0o0o0o

After everyone got back into the Gate's house and Ben was confirmed that security was tripled, night seemed to fall quicker than the night before. Abi told Chrissie she could stop by her apartment tomorrow and grab some of her own clothes and volunteered Riley to go with her. He made no wise ass comment and just nodded and watched her head up to her room.

Ben came and stood next to him. "What happened with her and Ian?"

"Threatened to shoot her; I think it really hit her hard. Even though Ian's an ass and crazy he's still her brother and I guess she thought there was something left to save in him." Riley shook his head.

"Abi and I are going to head to bed. We'll see you tomorrow alright?" Riley nodded and waved goodnight to Abi as they headed upstairs into their bedroom.

He headed into his own bedroom and threw on his black sweats and his green tee shirt with Aqua man on it and went back down stairs for some cereal. It was nearing midnight and he had a feeling he'd be joined shortly.

0o0o0o0

Riley heard shuffled footsteps and turned to see Chrissie make her way into the kitchen. She took a seat next to him and he continued to eat his cereal. She wasn't moving or anything when he sat his bowl down and he wondered if she had come down for food or because she knew he'd be down there.

He turned and got a good look at her tear tracked face and red eyes and nose. She'd been crying and it was apparent, although she never looked so beautiful. "Can't sleep?"

She shook her head and pulled the jacket she'd worn to dinner the night before closer around her.

Riley pulled her Ipod from his back pocket and went to hand it to her. "Maybe this'll help."

She took it from him and she smiled slightly. "Thanks." She knew he was just being nice to her because she'd shown up in the kitchen a crying mess. And the fact that she got Riley Poole to feel sorry for her and try to be nice made her feel embarrassed and she scrubbed her tears off her face with sleeve of the jacket.

"I have to come with you to get stuff from your apartment tomorrow." Riley said. It was the second thing that popped into his head; the first wasn't something she needed to hear.

"Yeah, I have a lot of stuff."

He shrugged. "You're a girl; you're entitled to a lot of useless stuff."

"I said I had a lot of stuff, never said it was useless."

Riley rolled his eyes. "Right, name three things in your apartment that are used for something important."

She sat up in her chair and took his challenge. "My history books…"

"Oooh ok one and I bet you rarely open and read them." He raised one hand and pretended to keep count with it.

"My laptop, which happens to have my Itunes account."

Riley shook his head but raised a second finger for the count. "Your Itunes list will never save your life, therefore not important."

"You never know when you might need an emergency mix." She smiled.

"Of your music? I think I'll past." Riley rolled his eyes. "Come on, third thing hot shot."

Chrissie hesitated for a moment and looked down. "The picture of me, Ian and my mother."

Riley nodded and put his hand down. "Where's your father?" he hoped it wasn't something too personal to ask.

"He left when I was really little. I think Ian has a picture of us all together but God knows if he even has that anymore." She shrugged like it wasn't a big deal, but he could tell it was. "You were right about my brother."

Riley shook his head and let out a sigh. It was the first time he could think of that he wished he had been wrong. "But what I said about _you_ being like your brother wasn't true."

Chrissie shrugged. "I still can't believe that was him in the library today. He was never…" She took a shaky breath and trailed off leaving Riley with a sickening pit in his stomach that she might cry. And he didn't know what to do if she started to.

"I must be tired." She tried laughing her embarrassing moment off, but it just sounded strained. "Thanks for my Ipod and for…listening."

He nodded and watched her head towards the stairs. "I want that shower first tomorrow." He said.

He could see he made her smile but she turned it into a playful glare. "Get up earlier then."

He smiled listening to her head up the stairs and close her bedroom door. Who knew that Riley Poole would be confided in, by a girl who basically claimed to hate him.

0o0o0o0o0

At ten in the morning Ben started to wake everyone up. While Abi was in the shower Riley pulled up the layout of King Tut's tomb on his laptop. He was seated comfortably on the couch until Chrissie came in and plopped down next to him. It made the whole couch jump, including the laptop on his lap.

"Hey watch it." Riley said irritated, it was too early in the morning for his. Granted it was ten, but it seemed early when he'd been up since five.

"Move to a different seat."

He adjusted his glasses and looked at her. Apparently all the moping she did earlier that morning hadn't changed her view on being _extremely_ frustrating. "I was here first and there's more room here than in an arm chair."

She stretched out suddenly taking up half the couch and when her feet were about to land on his laptop he jerked up with an angry sigh and moved to an arm chair. She smiled at her accomplishment and Riley quietly seethed as much anger off as he could before he picked up a coffee table and ended up hurling it at her.

"How's the tomb look?" Ben asked as he walked in and handed Chrissie a coffee.

"Same as it did at five this morning." Riley waited patiently for a moment but then realized Ben had nothing for him. "Thanks for the coffee Ben, its not like I was up researching or anything."

"All you've done is type 'King Tut's Tomb' into a Google search."

"Oh yeah, and what have you done?" Riley challenged her; he couldn't wait to hear this one. Ben just waited silently until they were done, it was best not to get in the middle of it.

"I believe I found that book at the library with the locket in it."

He rolled his eyes. "Right I forgot it takes so much effort to flip through the pages and look for a picture of your locket."

"What have you found?" Ben asked. He'd just have to ignore them; they practically did this all the time when they were together.

"Ok the last time someone was in King Tut's tomb it was in 1923." He turned his laptop so Chrissie and Ben could see the blueprint. "Now there are five main rooms. But the one we should really be worried about is the Burial Chamber. Expect we have to go through a passage and the Antechamber to get to it."

Chrissie shrugged. "And the big deal about that is?"

Riley sighed almost impatiently. Did she not know anything about the Egyptians? "Ok first of all, there are sealed doorways between every room. And who knows how many booby traps or curses are along there."

"You're worried about curses?" Chrissie stifled a giggle but let a huge grin play out on her face.

"The whole race of Egyptians built there lives around gods and goddesses and superstitions. Yeah, curses." He rolled his eyes. "Oh, do you not know the meaning of the word?"

He was talking to her like she was in kindergarten and she was about to toss her coffee cup at his head. Luckily, that's when Abi came down the stairs announcing she was out of the shower. Unfortunately Riley wasn't deaf and also heard her.

They both bolted for the stairs and tried running up faster than the other. When Riley got to the door first Chrissie tried to play it off like she'd hurt her ankle running up the stairs making him turn around. It gave her the perfect amount of time to run in before him.

He turned and knocked repeatedly on the door. "Hey you cheated!"

She leaned against the door and prevented him from opening it. "I call it a cross between skills and whit."

"Well I call it cheating! Open up!"

Surprisingly she did. "You're right Riley."

His eyebrows scrunched up in confusion. "I am?" He then nodded. "I mean yes. I am."

She stepped aside and let him through and he watched her for a moment as she went downstairs. He turned and shut the door and gave a good look around to try and figure out what she had done to the bathroom. When nothing looked out of place or suspicious he got into the shower.

Chrissie waited until she heard the shower start up to start flushing the toilet over and over.

"Very funny Chrissie!" Riley shouted trying one minute to avoid getting burned by hot water and another trying not to turn frigid from the cold.

She smiled and shrugged; he should have been a gentleman and let her have the shower first.

0o0o0o0o0

Riley pulled out of the Gate's driveway and drove in the direction of Chrissie's apartment.

"How much stuff do we need to grab at your apartment?" he jerked the car at a stop light making Chrissie turn and look at him weird. He just shrugged.

"Um, well pretty much all of my clothes and Ben said anything I might need."

Riley rolled his eyes. "Well pack light; we're not going on Safari. Plus my baby can't hold up a lot of weight?"

"You're baby? And we're heading to Egypt in four hours; I'm packing what I need to." Chrissie said raising her eyebrows.

He stroked the dash of his red Ferrari. "Yes…" He then just realized the rest of her sentence. "Wait, what? When was this decided?"

"I think you were in the shower."

Riley pressed the gas pedal and glared at her for a moment. She merely shrugged, "What? You were the one who wanted in the shower first."

"As long as I don't have to sit by you on the plane." He grumbled.

"You should be so lucky." Chrissie stuck her tongue out at him. "But you do have to ride in the car with me to Thebes."

He stuck his tongue out back at her. "This is going to be a long day."

"And a long night if you add the plane trip." She added helpfully.

He rolled his eyes, that kind of information she could keep to herself…along with anything else she had to say.

0o0o0o

Chrissie struggled with her key in the lock to her apartment and Riley put his hands in his jacket pockets. "Can you hurry it up? I'm double parked."

She shrugged. "Then go move your car."

Riley just sighed and stood there. He would have loved to go move his car; he didn't want it to get towed again. But with Chrissie's brother trying to kill her, he hated to admit it, but he didn't want to leave her by herself.

"Just hurry up." He said irritated.

Chrissie smiled realizing the reason why he wouldn't leave and gave one violent shove into her apartment door. It hurt the hell out of her shoulder but she got the door open. "Ok got it."

"Thank god." He mumbled following her in.

"Something's not right." She said suddenly as he shut the door.

"How can you tell? The light's not..." The words fell from his mouth as she turned the apartment lights on. Her things were everywhere. The dresser and bed had been toppled over, her clothes were strewn out of her closet and on the apartment floor, and her desk chair had been shoved into the wall making an indentation near the one window.

"Maid forget to come today?" he asked rudely.

She ignored him and lightly kicked at the floor turning a drawer over. "How could someone not hear this?"

"Yeah, you'd think all the old people downstairs with hearing aids would be able to sense something. Maybe feel the vibrations through the floor." He added sarcastically.

"I'm really glad you can make a joke about this Riley." She answered upset, picking up her clothes and throwing them into a tote bag.

Riley just shook his head and leaned against the door. He hadn't meant to be such an ass about it but when he was around her he didn't know how else to act. They were always fighting about something and even though he knew she was playing around, what she did and said really made him angry half the time.

"Who would do this? Nothing was taken…at least I don't think." She looked around at the things on her floor.

Riley looked at her skeptically for a moment. She knew _exactly_ who did this, probably knew before he did. But he figured she wanted someone to lie to her.

"I don't know but we should hurry up and get out of here before they show up again." He couldn't believe he was actually playing along with her and the delusion that her brother was still a nice law abiding citizen.

Chrissie nodded and picked up the rest of the things she could salvage and headed quickly out the door, Riley in tow.

She threw her bag into the bag seat and jumped over the side door and into the seat.

Riley smiled doing the same thing. "Been doing that long?" He had just been trying to get her to smile but it backfired when she turned her head and glared at him.

"Who could have done that to my apartment Riley?"

He was starting to think that her 'delusion' was becoming too real for her anymore. He liked it better when she just hated Ian. "Chrissie, you know it was your brother."

She shook her head and it made him feel almost sorry for her. "You don't know that. It could have been someone else after the treasure."

"The same someone who knows you have a locket to open Isis's statue and knows _exactly_ where you live?" Riley asked hesitantly. "The same someone who knew you were at the library and over Ben's house in the first place?"

"Why would Ian trash my room?"

He wished she'd stop asking him questions she already knew the answers to. "Because he can't get into the Gate's house and he's coming after you. This is why we need to get you as far away from here and Ben's house. Here." He handed her his cell phone. "Call Ben and tell him we'll meet him at the airport."

She nodded and looked through the phone book and hit dial on Ben's number. It rang twice before he answered.

"Hey Ben its Chrissie….no me and Riley are ok." He kept glancing at her when she paused to listen to Ben talk. "Yeah someone broke into my apartment; Riley just wants you to meet us there. Ok…yeah, bye."

She hung up the phone and handed it back to him. "He said that the attic of his house was broken a little while ago."

"How the hell does Ian _always_ get past cops and security?" He shook his head and made a left turn.

"Nothing was taken but Ben said it was a good idea that we head to the airport. He just wanted to remind you to stay alert and make sure you load the bags on the right flight."

Riley nodded and made mental notes of what Ben said.

"How long until we get there?" she asked leaning her head on her propped up arm.

"Half an hour, depending on traffic." He looked at her a moment and noticed she looked extremely tired. "You can sleep if you want, I'll wake you when we get there."

She rolled her eyes. "Right and leave you all the chances to leave me here in your car. No way Poole, you're not getting me that easily."

He smiled slightly and returned his gaze back to the road and its noisy travelers. He wondered how many times she used a joke to make her feel better or how she could handle this whole situation without it breaking her.

0o0o0o0o

hope everyone is enjoying it! Reveiws are welcome!!!!


	5. Off to Egypt

Title: Formatia trans sicere educatorum

Pairing: RileyOC, BenAbigail

Rating: Pg-15

Summary: Chrissie Howe is pleased that her gun happy thug brother is in jail. But what happens when she takes a family heirloom to Ben Gates to figure out its significance? Ian Howe is royally pissed. Can Ben, Abigail and Riley help her find the treasure before Ian?

Spoilers: Through the second National Treasure, which means Ben and Abi are married.

Disclaimer: The disclaimer says I can't own Riley, or National Treasure. Didn't say I couldn't kidnap him though although Chrissie Howe is mine.

o0o0o0o0o0o

Chapter 5: Off to Egypt

They arrived in Cairo around midnight and everyone was equally exhausted. Riley and Chrissie were seated by an annoying boy who kept calling Riley a dorkwad. Chrissie at first thought it was hilarious until the boy started saying that she liked Riley. It gave them both such a headache that neither of them fought the entire time, although knowing Riley it would start back up again sooner or later.

Ben and Abi fell asleep on each other but the plane was suffering a lot of turbulence, so sleeping soundly was short lived. After everyone got off the plane the bags started showing up around the designated turnstile, which Ben told Riley to go and watch for their bags.

While Ben and Abi were calling hotels to set up their rooms, Chrissie followed Riley to the baggage claim.

"What you think I don't know what our bags look like?" Riley asked.

She shook her head. "No, especially since you just missed one of them."

Riley's head jolted to the turnstile and he jumped after the bag he missed, nearly clipping an old woman with a shopping cart and a poodle. While Riley tried to apologize to the now screaming woman Chrissie turned and went to look at the traveler pamphlets.

When Riley joined the others with their bags Chrissie stopped anyone from moving towards the exit. "We have a problem." She said.

"Other than you almost got me killed by a very angry woman and her poodle?"

She handed Ben the brochure she found. On this front was an advertisement for Cairo's history museum.

"I'm allergic to dogs you know." Riley added quietly and Chrissie just rolled her eyes at him.

"The Isis statue isn't in King Tut's tomb anymore. It's at the museum and it's one of the main displays."

"Haven't you heard we're great at breaking into museums?" Riley added sarcastically and rolled his eyes.

Ben shook his head and looked to Abigail for a moment. "Looks like we're gonna have to do this first."

"We can't even eat first?" Riley whined; his stomach had been growling for hours now.

Abigail shook her head picking up her bag and heading out. "Not if Ian shows up and sees the statues on display too. We'll drop our bags off at the hotel and then head to the museum."

"We have the locket, there's no way he can do anything unless he takes Chrissie herself." Riley argued.

His argument was falling on deaf ears as he followed them out into the heat of Cairo. He really wanted to eat but as he stood there waiting with them for the cab, he weighed the possibilities in his head… and the treasure won out as more appealing.

O0o0o0o0o0o

Observing the Cairo Museum didn't take long. There were video cameras, but none that Riley couldn't copy the feed from and two armed guards at every entrance, which could easily be distracted. As for the statue of Isis, it was in the middle of the ancient gods and goddesses room and was in a 7 foot high glass case. Chrissie observed the back and front of it and realized the only thing that stood between them and the clue inside Isis was four two inch glass sides and a lock securing one of the glass slides to open the display case.

"Feed is up and ready Ben." Riley said referring to his handheld.

Ben nodded and placed a hearing device in his ear. "Sure you two don't want to be the fighting couple this time? You two are really good at it." He raised his eyes at the two of them and Riley and Chrissie both rolled their eyes.

"The only thing he's really good at is angering old women with poodles." Chrissie said.

Riley turned to her, eyes wide and arms up with exasperation. "That was _your_ fault!"

Ben smiled and took the handheld from Riley and placed it in his pocket and joined Abigail a few feet away. Riley and Chrissie got into position and pretended to browse the ancient gods section until they heard the loud fighting of Abigail and Ben.

It didn't take long especially when Ben and Abi fought as well as Riley and Chrissie did. When they got pulled out of the room and the two other guards followed it was just the two of them and Riley waited patiently for Ben to give him the signal.

Suddenly Ben's voice popped up in Riley's ear through the earphone he had on. "We're in the holding cell; you're clear at all hallways. You probably have five minutes before the guards return to their spots."

Riley nodded and had to work quickly. He bent under the ropes separating tourists from the glass case and fumbled with the lock trying to pick it open.

"You know what I just noticed?" Chrissie asked standing near him as a look out.

"That now really isn't the time to bother me?" Riley asked fumbling with the lock.

Chrissie took the locket out of her jeans pocket and opened it. "The inscription is Latin…but everything else has to do with Egypt."

Riley squinted his eyes at the lock and continued to fumble with it. He ran his tongue over his bottom lip. "In the 3rd century AD the major languages used in Egypt were Egyptian, Greek, and Latin. Egyptian was spoken by the native people living in Egypt, and the language was represented by a variety of scripts. But sometimes they wrote scripts in Latin too. It confused grave robbers when they tried to steal from tombs."

She nodded. "You're like a great big boring book of knowledge you know that?"

He gave an obnoxious head tilt trying to mock her and pulled the lock open. "Yeah, one great big book of opening locks too."

He pulled the lock off and opened the glass door. Riley checked his watch as Chrissie got in front of him to open the locket and push it against the chest of Isis, they only had three minutes.

As she pushed the locket onto the opening, Chrissie heard gears start to turn and the mouth of Isis slid open. Dust and dirt fell from the mouth and Chrissie coughed loudly making Riley look at her wide eyed. She rolled her eyes at him and waited a moment for the irritants to clear and pulled whatever was in Isis's mouth. As Riley closed everything back up and stepped over the ropes he noticed the guards weren't returning to their places.

Chrissie turned the object in her fingers; it was a golden disc about as big as the palm of her hand. There were hieroglyphs instead of Latin this time and it was following the circular motion of the disc.

She handed it to Riley. "Can you read it?"

He seemed distracted and Chrissie nudged him. "What?" he asked irritated. Couldn't she give him one second to think?

"Can you read this?" She asked again.

He looked it over quickly and nodded. "Yeah I can but not now, something's not right. The guards should have been back by now."

As Riley turned he saw where the guards had gone. They were on the floor and Ian was stepping over them.

0o0o0o0o0o0o

Chrissie couldn't believe how many men Ian could get a hold of so quickly. She and Riley didn't even have a chance to run; they were grabbed and brought down to the holding cell where Ben and Abigail were waiting.

"Where's the locket Christina?" Ian asked shoving Riley against the holding cell's bars. He turned and looked at her. "Well?"

"Just give him the locket Christina." Riley said holding his shoulder.

"Riley!" Chrissie, Ben and Abigail said almost simultaneously.

"I'm sorry! I'm not risking my life for some stupid treasure; give him the damn locket Chrissie."

"No Riley, Ian can't do this!"

"Really? Because I'm thinking since he has the guns that means he can."

Chrissie shook her head. "Of course you do. You always can figure a cryptic message out but you can't stand up and be a man once and a while."

Ian stepped back for a moment and watched them. If they were like this all the time he wondered why Ban hadn't shot them both already.

"I am being the man here! I'm saving our lives…."

"You're such an ignorant pinhead…" She said angrily.

They were both interrupted by the sound of Ian's gun being fired at the ceiling. "Alright knock it off! Where's the locket _now_ Chrissie?"

She took one more look at Riley and threw the locket at Ian. As Ian went down to pick it up Riley suddenly shoved into him, knocking the gun from his hands. Ian recovered almost instantly and threw a punch at the side of Riley's jaw, sending him reeling. As Ian went after him one last time, Riley sent a surprise kick right along his lower abdomen. Ian went down, hitting his head off the bars of the holding cell.

He was knocked out and Chrissie searched around for the keys to the holding cell.

Riley got up and felt the side of his jaw. "When did you realize I was bluffing?"

She looked up at him. "When you said stupid treasure." She smiled slightly. "When did you figure out that I was actually fighting with you?"

"Around ignorant pinhead. You always have a way with words." He wanted to smile but his jaw burned from Ian's punch.

"He has them right?" she asked Ben frantically looking through Ian's pockets.

Ben nodded. "He hit the guard on the way down, I think he put them in his inside jacket pocket."

Chrissie nodded and felt in the pockets and found them. Her hands were shaking so bad that she was having troubles getting they key in the lock. Riley suddenly appeared on her one side taking the keys from her gently. He unlocked the door and Ben and Abigail stepped out.

"Where did Ian's men go?" Riley asked now realizing he had blood on the side of his mouth.

"They're probably upstairs making sure no real guards come down here." Abi said helping Ben pull Ian into the cell.

Riley locked the door once again and threw the keys across the room. "What do we do?"

"Did you guys get whatever was in Isis?" Ben asked.

Riley nodded and looked at Chrissie. She was staring at her brother in the cell and he nudged her. She looked at Riley and then at Ben.

"Yeah, it was a golden disc; Riley's going to decipher it later." She picked up her locket that ended up on the floor and put it in her pocket. She felt like leaving it though, along with the golden disc. There was just too much trouble and confusion attached to treasure hunting.

"We need to spilt up." Ben said suddenly.

"What? No, Ben that's exactly what Ian wants us to do." Riley said heatedly. He wouldn't be responsible for something that could happen when everyone separated.

"If we're all together we're easier to target. I'm just saying split up different ways to get back to the hotel. If you feel like you're being followed go somewhere else and call me."

"Ben." Riley pulled on the older man's forearm and tugged him aside. "I can't…"

Ben nodded understanding what Riley was trying to deny. It was a lot to put on someone. "She's your responsibility. Watch out for her." He said quietly.

That's what Riley was afraid of. He didn't even like Chrissie that much, but if anything happened to her while he was supposed to be looking out for her, protecting her, he'd never forgive himself. He was never so great with responsibility. He had a goldfish once that was his responsibility, or so his parents had said. The thing lived for three days.

Abigail hushed them suddenly; she had heard movement on the stairs that led to the holding cell. Suddenly three of Ian's men appeared and seeing Ian knocked out in the cell, they weren't too happy.

"Run!" Riley yelled.

Chrissie and Riley ran right while Ben and Abigail went left. Ian's men followed Riley and Chrissie of course and he blamed it on Chrissie. They recognized her as Ian's sister so naturally they ran after her.

They got to a staircase leading up and Chrissie followed Riley as close as possible. She turned and looked down one moment when she heard one of them call her name. She turned back the next second and Riley was gone. She figured he'd run on without her so she ran up the next to flight of steps but when she looked farther up the staircase Riley was no where to be seen.

"Riley!" she called out. She turned around in a circle looking for him frantically. But all there was was one storage closet door, a staircase leading down and stairs leading up. Ian's men were closing down on her; soon they'd be on the same floor as she was. When Chrissie decided she needed to run with or without Riley her arm was suddenly grabbed and she was pulled into the storage closet.

She gasped out of instinct as a hand was placed over her mouth and the other pinned her shoulder to the now closed door.

"Shhh…" someone whispered quietly.

"Riley?" Chrissie asked pulling her mouth from his hand. "What the hell are you--?"

He clamped his hand over her mouth again and she heard footsteps on the stairs again, but this time they were on the same floor as them.

Riley leaned close and whispered in her ear. "I know it's hard for you, but be quiet for _two_ seconds."

Chrissie obeyed his orders and tried listening to what Ian's men were doing outside the door. She tried to move her shoulder out of Riley's grasp but he was hell bent on her not moving. As she was bringing her shoulder foreword her pelvis collided with his. And that's when she realized how close they were in the dark little storage closet. He was leaning in close from the whisper and his breath was on her neck, but she could feel the goose bumps everywhere on her body.

She heard Ian's men head back downstairs and it sounded like they were getting farther and farther away but she didn't want Riley to move. Although she noticed that after few seconds of them being gone, he didn't. He still stood there hand on her shoulder the other coming down to clasp her collar bone and suddenly she couldn't breathe.

Her breath was stuck in her throat and it was making her burn all over. She wondered if he could feel how heated she was getting beneath him.

Although Riley was having his own troubles staying cool. He kept wondering if he should even be doing this and waited for her to stop him. But she didn't. So he leaned in closer and closer and it wasn't until their lips were close enough to touch that she turned her head.

"We should call Abi and Ben." She said quietly.

Riley nodded pulling himself back from her. "Ok."

She turned pulling the door open and both of them headed back down the stairs to the main lobby in the museum. When neither of them saw Ian or his men they stepped out into the heat of Egypt and made their way back to the hotel. Chrissie shivered but she couldn't figure out what it was from, especially since it felt like the surface of the sun outside. She hadn't realized how cold she was until Riley stopped breathing against her.

0o0o0o0o0

Riley and Chrissie got back before Abi and Ben did. Chrissie flopped on the bed as Riley ended his conversation with Ben and hung up his cell.

"They took the long way; they thought Ian's men were following them. They should be here in a half an hour."

Chrissie nodded. "How's you jaw?"

He rubbed it and winced. "I've been through worse. It's not so bad." He didn't want to make himself look like a wuss, but it really did hurt. It was bleeding after Ian had hit him and he knew he was going to wake up tomorrow with a huge bruise.

Chrissie nodded and got up heading to the bathroom. When she returned she had a cloth in her hand and she took it over to the sink letting cold water pour over it. She gave the water a few minutes to soak into the fabric and brought it back over to Riley who was looking at her confused.

She went to put it on his jaw and Riley batted her away. "Don't be such a baby."

"I can do it." Riley said trying to take the cloth from her.

She shook her head. "My brother, my fault."

He shook his head letting her put the cloth on him. It was weird how he could feel the warmth of her hand through the freezing cloth. "I believe it was Ian who let his fist collide with jaw. It's not your fault."

She pulled back the cloth and looked at it for a moment. "Well doctor?" Riley asked.

"You're gonna have a huge bruise tomorrow." She winced for him out of sympathy.

"Well that won't attract the ladies." Riley said forlorn. Chrissie smiled when she relaxed he was a bit serious.

"Yeah, defiantly an ugly bruise."

"Doesn't feel pretty either." Rile replied sarcastically as she brought the cloth to his face again.

He grimaced feeling the cut burn on his face and brought his hand up to push the cloth off. His hand came up and gripped her own and Riley suddenly remembered why the cloth was there in the first place. He heard Chrissie draw a sharp inhale and he wondered if he was hurting her for a moment. But she didn't move her hand and he didn't know what to do, so he didn't move his either.

He couldn't feel the burning of his jaw anymore.

0o0o0o0o0o

everyone like? review? lol much appricated if you do, thanks for all of the amazing comments already!


	6. Feelings

thank you for the amazing comments:

**Supernaturalfreakisabookworm, daisyduke80, ShadowWolfDagger, MissMcSteamy, orlisgirl04, TheScarletSerpent, athousandyellowdaisies, xXxKiba-kunxXx, Jamie Fynn, bookworm2011 **and **xxroxy-dogxx.**

Thank you! Here's chapter 6, it's a bit long :D **  
**

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Chapter 6: Feelings

Ben turned the corner of the hotel floor and paused waiting for Abi.

"You mean you haven't noticed it?" she asked fixing her shoe.

"Noticed what?" he asked sighing.

"Riley and Chrissie. It's so obvious!"

He nodded. "Right, right. The way they're always fighting. I forgot that translated into passionate lovers." He rolled his eyes.

She shrugged slipping her shoe back on. "They're just stuck in a first grade level that's all. Pick on the one you like."

Maybe Abi was right. Knowing Riley it didn't surprise him that he'd be stuck in a first grade level romance.

"You think I should ask him about it?"

Abi shrugged, she knew Ben liked to be Riley's brother figure when he could. "I think he'll come to you if he needs to. On the other hand I'm going to have a talk with Chrissie."

Ben stopped at their room and leaned against the doorframe. "And why can you talk with Chrissie and I can't ask Riley?"

She shrugged smiling. "It's a girl thing."

Ben rolled his eyes knocking on the door. "Women…"

0o0o0o0o0

"It's upside down." Chrissie commented.

"It's a disc with symbols in a circle. It can't be upside down." Riley replied.

"Well then I mean you need to turn it over."

Riley rolled his eyes. "You need to be turned over." He muttered childishly.

Chrissie smiled nudging him in the shoulder. "Nice comeback Riles."

"_Riles_?" he questioned as he heard a knock on the door.

She shrugged picking up the disc from where he set it down. "It's a cute nickname."

"It sounds like a dog." He looked through the peep hole and opened it up for Abi and Ben.

"Did you guys get anything from it yet?" Ben asked quickly coming over and taking the disc from Chrissie.

Riley shut the door and joined the other three around the table against the side wall of the room.

"Riley got a sentence so far." Chrissie said.

"But it's hard. See Egyptians wrote their languages in a series of symbols which are letter sounds instead of words."

"How much longer will it take?" Abigail asked sneaking around Ben to see the disc.

"Not much, but at least a half an hour."

Ben nodded. "Well you two stay here, Chrissie help him if you can."

Chrissie nodded and looked at Riley who rolled his eyes and stuck his tongue out at her. She was glad he was being such an adult about it.

"Abigail and I are going to get us some food, we'll be back in an hour?" he guessed. Ben waited for Abigail to grab a sweatshirt from her suitcase and followed her out the door.

Chrissie pulled up a chair next to Riley and motioned him to sit down. "So what was the first line?"

He pulled up a chair setting his feet up on the table. "Um, of something cherished and forbidden."

She nodded and jotted it down in her notebook and set it on the table.

"What do you think that means?" Chrissie asked twisting her pen around and putting the end of it on her bottom lip.

"I guess we'll find out." Riley said, slipping his glasses on. After a few minutes had gone by he could feel her eyes on him every so often, like she was checking to see if he was looking at _her_ or something. Not that he wouldn't, she was a girl after all. And after the heated ten minutes of cleaning up his jaw he was surprised that he could tear his eyes off her.

"Why are you staring at me?" he asked suddenly. He looked up to find her eyes on him again.

"I'm not I—" she was flustered from being caught but it wasn't what he thought. "Do you know all the hieroglyphics?"

Riley looked at her for a moment, that wasn't what he expected her to say. "Um, yeah I mean I graduated with a degree for Cryptology."

"The study of codes and ciphers?" she asked.

He nodded. "Sometimes it requires you to know other languages as well. Codes aren't always numbers."

She was quiet for a moment and then leaned in close to him as he kept looking over the disc and looking back at a reference book on the table in case he needed it.

"Can you teach me?" she asked quietly.

He looked up at her. "Cryptology?"

She shook her head and pointed to the book. "Reading some hieroglyphics. I've always wanted to and Ian used to show me some in history books but he never..." she trailed off and Riley nodded.

He smiled slightly and it gave her butterflies. "Yeah, I can show you."

He pushed his chair closer to hers and she brought her legs up and crossed them on her chair. She leaned close to him again and watched as he pointed out the glyphs on the disc.

"Ok, some of these are really obvious like… this one. What's that look like?"

"A lion." She said watching him graze his finger over it.

"Yeah so basically that ones an L. But there's ones like this one…" he shifted to another glyph.

"The snail?"

He nodded. "That one could be for an R or a V in words like fire or rough."

"What other languages to you know?" she wondered if he realized how suddenly interested she was in his life and what he did. She needed to tone it down or he would catch on. It was embarrassing enough to admit that she liked him to herself. She'd rather die than admit it to Riley.

"Latin and a little of Spanish and French, but not enough to have full conversations."

"My mother knew a ton of languages and Ian and I would sit on her bed when we were little and tried to guess the language she was using and what she said." She smiled a little at the memory and Riley tried not to stare at her mouth.

She had a beautiful smile, he had to admit and it was unfortunate that it was ruined when she opened her mouth and started insulting him. Although, he kind of liked it when she did that too.

Riley looked down at the disc and felt her lean even closer to watch him observe it. As she did he got this uncomfortable feeling in his stomach but oddly it was nice. He couldn't explain it but he shouldn't have been feeling that way about her. She was Ian's sister, practically the link to his sworn enemy trying to kill him again. Feeling like that, his heart beating erratically and the butterflies doing back flips in his stomach, shouldn't have felt so…right.

"Get a pen notebook girl." He said suddenly uncovering the last of the text.

She did so and put the pen to the pad. "Is that what I am now?"

"Unless you still want to be known as gun crazy's sister." He threw her a smile and she smirked.

"Ok here it is:

_Of something cherished and forbidden,_

_Which Osiris keeps within_

_Death and blood is hidden,_

_in his grasp; with his kin."_

"Why are cryptic messages so...?"

"Creepy?" Riley finished for her.

She nodded and he laughed. "What did you think it would say, "Here's where the treasure is, spend it wisely?""

"It would be _so_ much easier that way." She stood, closed the book and stretched her arms over her head. Riley tried not to stare at her doing it, but it was kind of hard not to. When she stretched her t-shirt pulled from over her jeans and he could see her stomach. She was tan and he noticed she had a belly button ring as well. He also heard her make this sighing noise when she did it and it drove him crazy.

"It's your turn to stop staring Riles."

Riley looked away and blushed a deep shade of crimson. He didn't know whether the fact she caught him staring or the nickname embarrassed him more.

At that moment the door was knocked on again and Ben and Abi came in with food. Chrissie smiled and grabbed a bag from Abi and sat in her chair and emptied food onto the table.

"Riley we've got food." Ben said knocking Riley from his thoughts.

He nodded and sat at the table waiting for everyone to grab theirs first. It was the first time in a long time where he just felt…full.

0o0o0o0o0

Abi picked up the plates and threw them into the trash as Chrissie collected the cups. Riley moaned that his stomach was about to explode and Ben got a few books out from his suitcase.

"So what was the inscription?" Ben asked.

_Of something cherished and forbidden,_

_Which Osiris keeps within_

_Death and blood is hidden,_

_in his grasp; with his kin."_

Chrissie recited the rhyme flawlessly and Riley nodded.

"We were trying to figure out what it meant but then you came in with food." Abi smiled at Riley as he ran a hand over his stomach. "Which was delicious by the way."

Ben looked deep in thought and Abi took this moment to nudge Chrissie lightly. "Hey can we talk after this?"

Chrissie nodded and it grabbed Riley's attention. "Talk about what?"

Maybe if he wasn't so rude and nosy all the time he'd have more girls after him. "Your adoption by apes."

"Ha.Ha.Ha." Riley commented dryly and turned to see if Ben had his eureka moment.

"Cherished and forbidden is obviously treasure…" Ben commented quietly.

"And Osiris was the god of the underworld so it's natural he'd be found in the tomb where the treasures location is. Where Isis was…" Chrissie trailed off twirling the ends of her hair in thought.

Ben nodded. "It makes sense."

Riley shook his head. "Every tomb in Egypt has an Isis and Osiris statue. He was the god of the dead and she was his wife, they were always put in tombs together. One was usually at the exit of the antechamber."

"Osiris?" Chrissie asked the puzzle clicking itself into place.

Riley nodded following her thinking. "You're thinking that since Osiris is at the exit that within him is the burial chamber or where the treasure would be held."

"Ok so, death, blood, hidden, kin…" Ben started talking to himself.

"Well blood and kin are linked right? Because kin has to do with your family; your bloodline." Chrissie said.

"Bloodline of Osiris?" Riley asked.

Abi shook her head. "Probably has to do with a descendant of King Tut since that's the tomb he's guarding."

"So a bloodline of King Tut is the only one that can open Osiris and enter the burial chamber to get the treasure." Riley asked and Chrissie shook her head.

"No, you just have to have the descendant's belongings. I have the locket and now the disc; I should be able to go through Osiris's statute."

Ben smiled. "Nice going Chrissie, that's it."

She smiled widely and Riley smiled too seeing her face brighten. Abi noticed Riley's reaction and saw Chrissie look to smile at him too. It was really time for that talk.

0o0o0o0o0

Ben had paid for two rooms and when it was getting late he suggested everyone try and get some sleep. As Ben said his goodnights and headed to the room across the hall, Abi pulled Chrissie into the hallway to talk with her a moment.

"I'll be there in a moment sweetie." She told Ben and he nodded, gave her a smile and shut the door.

Chrissie shut the door also when she saw Riley approaching it. "Hey!" he whined.

"Go away Riley." Chrissie said rolling her eyes at Abi, making her smile.

"Fine, I will." he replied.

Chrissie waited a moment and smiled. "I can see your feet shifting against the door and can practically _hear_ you eavesdropping Riley."

He made an annoyed shuffling and sighed. "How do you _do_ that?"

Chrissie snickered and waited until she was sure Riley had moved away from the door. "What's up Abi?"

"You don't…" she stopped trying to figure out how to ask this. Chrissie waited patiently. "Do you…like Riley?"

Chrissie stared at her for a moment and realized that's where her mistake had been. She should have just said anything that popped into her head at that moment; but her silence was ear shattering and it said it all.

"No." she said simply, although it was too late to cover up anything.

Abi nodded her head knowingly. "Right." She turned to leave but then turned back. "You know I know Riley and he can be the most annoying person you've ever met and you could loose your sanity by being near him too long."

Chrissie smiled at that and waited for her to continue.

"But he can also be a really great guy, if that's worth anything."

Chrissie nodded and put her hand on the doorknob. "Can you tell if…he likes me at all?" her voice squeezed out.

Abi smiled. "I think you already know that answer." She then turned and headed into her room.

Chrissie was smiling as she entered her room and saw Riley snuggling into bed.

"What's so funny?" Riley asked pushing the side of his head into the pillow.

"You." She said honestly and slid into her own bed.

Riley was lucky she turned off the lights when she did. If she had seen how wide his grin had gotten he would have had to explain how she had caused it.

0o0o0o0o0o

It took Riley a half an hour to get Chrissie out of bed. He tried pushing the covers off, throwing things on top of her, at one point he even tried pulling her but that rewarded him with a nice smack on the chest.

"Chrissie come on, Ben wanted us downstairs ten minutes ago." Riley said sitting next to her on the bed.

Chrissie mumbled something, which Riley guessed was a plead for eight more hours of sleep. He shook his head and tried pulling the covers back again.

She struggled and pulled them back. "If this is how bad you are in the mornings I can't imagine what it's like when you've had a ton of drinks the night before."

She shook her head and sat up slightly, rubbing her eyes. "Pretty much the same…but more vomiting."

Riley gave her an unpleasant look. "Lovely." He commented. "Now come on, Ben needs us downstairs."

0o0o0o0o0o0o

"What took you guys so long?" Abi asked standing next to a pacing Ben.

"Chrissie's not a morning person. Actually when you think about it she's not an any type of day person."

She rolled her eyes. "Why's Ben pacing?"

"Yeah, I thought I was the only one who did a neurotic jig like that."

"He's had a lot of coffee and he's on the phone with Sandusky." Abi commented. "He said we should just meet him at breakfast."

"About Ian?" Chrissie asked quietly.

Abi just nodded and motioned for them to follow her out across the street to a little café. They got a table outside, near the street and waited patiently for a waiter and Ben. Chrissie sat comfortably in one of the patted chairs and Riley sat next to her.

"Are we checking out the tomb today?" she asked.

Abi nodded sitting across from them. "Hopefully. We have to get a tour guide to get us out there."

"That shouldn't be so hard." She guessed. "We'll just have to break away from the group at the right time."

"Tour groups?" Riley asked. It seemed like he hadn't been paying attention at all. "They have tours for Thebes?"

"Why wouldn't they?" Chrissie got up and adjusted the large umbrella attached to the table and shaded it more over them.

"Well Thebes is about 450 miles away from Cairo and since Thebes is a legendary city of the dead, it surprises me that so many local people would be willing to go there." He said simply.

"It's mostly tourists." Abi said looking over the menu.

When Ben arrived everyone ordered breakfast. Riley of course getting a huge plate of pancakes while every one else got something small.

Chrissie added more sugar to her coffee. "You're not eating anything?" he asked her.

She shrugged. "Not a morning eater either."

Riley pushed his plate closer to her and she smiled taking a bit of his pancake. "What did Sandusky say?" she asked after she swallowed. Those pancakes weren't half bad and she reached over to take the end of another one.

"He's having a hard time tracking him, said he's laying low." Ben said trying to figure out Chrissie's reaction.

"That kind of makes me feel like he's everywhere." Riley said paranoid.

"It's not like your hard to find you Riley…you have a _huge_ mouth." She put an emphasis on huge and smiled as he glared at her and started to pull his plate away.

Ben and Abi smiled at them and locked hands underneath the table. "Sandusky assured me he'd find him."

Chrissie nodded. "It's just a matter of if he finds us before they find him."

"And the treasure." Riley added.

"Well then, we better make sure the treasure is ours to find." Ben said nodding.

After breakfast, it was off to Thebes.

0o0o0o0o

Finding the tour guide in the crowded streets of Cairo was hectic. Ben and Abi joined hands through the crowd and Riley mimicked their actions grabbing Chrissie's. He felt her hand tense the first few moments after he'd grabbed it but finally felt her relax and equally squeeze his hand passing through the large groups of people. If anyone got separated it was easier for Ian to find them. Luckily, it didn't seem like Ian knew where they were staying. What Riley feared was that he did and he was just waiting for the perfect time to set an ambush.

Chrissie kept having this uneasy feeling that someone was following her and she wondered if she was just being irrational. She looked behind her, and let Riley guide her and thought she saw that one man before. She looked to Riley and shook her head. She was starting to get way to Riley-like with the whole being paranoid.

Although after all four of them had turned a corner she looked back again and the same man made the bend as well. As Riley followed Ben and Abi through the massive mobs of people she pulled on his hand. Riley looked back for a moment but then looked foreword to pay attention.

"Riley someone's following us." She said above the yelling of market places and people.

"Are you sure?" he asked.

She looked back again and the man was indeed there. "Positive." Now that she thought about it she actually thought she saw him at breakfast too, which meant he might have overheard the whole plan for heading to Thebes.

Now Riley stopped for a moment and turned to look in her direction. His eyes got wide with panic.

"What?" she asked.

"Run…now!" he turned and took off, jerking her arm to pull her faster than she was running. She didn't know where Ben and Abi had gone. She couldn't tell if they were still in front of her or if they had passed them. It was hard to tell since they were running and everyone looked like blurs.

Riley pulled them down an alley that was less crowded; which wasn't necessarily a good thing. As Chrissie turned around she noticed that the man wasn't so shy to pull his gun out anymore. For some reason she felt rather than saw the gun being fired; her emotions and nerves were so out of whack from being paranoid and scared to death.

Chrissie turned to Riley and pushed him out of the way. It was a hard shove and he fell to the ground as she tried to move out of the line of fire. She barely made it and the bullet managed to graze her arm.

She cried in pain and gripped her arm tightly as Riley scuffled to his feet pulling her into a run again. Chrissie's arm was throbbing and the heat was starting to get to her, she was falling farther and farther behind until Riley just stopped and picked her up.

"Come on Chris, just a little bit longer." He grunted trying to shift her weight in his arms and ran at the same time.

Chrissie nodded, her head was heavy and she laid it on Riley's chest. She could hear him talking to her and it sounded like he was underwater. After a few minutes Riley had stopped running and he set her down on what felt like sand.

"Where…" she barely managed that. Her head was aching and she felt like she was shaking in the desert heat. When she leaned her head back she felt it rest against a wall; they were in another alley way behind some trash barrels.

He let out a long sigh and kneeled down next to her. "You okay?"

She nodded. "I'm not so great with heat…and…"

"And running?" he guessed giving her a small smile.

He then noticed she was gripping her arm rather tightly. "What happened?" he just thought it had been the heat and lack of eating getting to her.

"Just a graze I'm fine." Although her stomach lurched when she said it, she had never been great with blood.

He gently pulled her hand from her arm and she winced. "Right, just a _bullet_ graze." Riley grit his teeth. "Really nothing to worry about there. Can you stand?"

She nodded and Riley pulled her other arm up and put it over his shoulder. "Ok, I saw this small motel looking thing a few minutes back. We'll go there, get a first aid kit and call Abi and Ben."

Riley kept his eye out for the man that had been chasing them but they were in the middle of a market square in the heat of the day. Even if the guy was around Riley wouldn't have been able to see him and maybe that meant he wouldn't be able to see them either.

He pulled open the motel door and made his way through the line of people up to the front desk. "Do you have a first aid kit?" he asked.

The old lady nodded hastily and it made him wonder if she had an actual condition from it. She led them to their storage closet and pulled one out handing it to him. He put the kit under his arm and shifted Chrissie over to a small bench near the corner of the motel. Not a lot of people were there since everyone was focused around the front desk and getting a room.

He sat her down and opened the kit. "What the hell was going through your mind, Chrissie?" Riley asked angrily, pulling out a small bottle of rubbing alcohol. He poured some onto a cloth and paused softening his voice. "This might sting a little." He hadn't meant to be so harsh with her, especially since she'd just practically saved his life.

As Riley pressed the cloth against her wound, she winced, pulling back her arm a bit. "Sorry." Riley muttered.

"I don't know. It was just a reaction and hello? I didn't want you to get shot." She explained and Riley began bandaging her arm.

"Chrissie you could've gotten killed!" Riley exclaimed as he tied up the bandage. To hell with not being harsh. She'd scared the shit out of him and he intended on letting her know that.

"I know, I know." She paused. "Do you…Do you really care about me that much? That you were scared for me?" she asked softly. He looked up, his stunning blue eyes met hers and as she moved her arm back her hand settled in his.

"I don't know why, but I… I was scared to death." Riley admitted. "I mean, I didn't want you to get hurt. You saved my life you know."

She smiled weakly at him, kissing his cheek softly. "I know."

Riley took that opportunity to pull her into a hug careful not to hit her bandaged arm. He pulled her tightly to him and Chrissie relaxed into him, liking the feeling of his breathing against her. It was the most relaxed she'd felt in days.

"It means a lot that you care Riley." She said.

Riley just nodded and held her a bit closer. He was starting to realize she meant a whole lot more to him than she knew.

0o0o0o0o0o

i hope everyone enjoyed. comments or suggestions are greatly apprciated!


	7. Book

Chapter 7: Book

When Riley and Chrissie made their way back to the hotel, Ben and Abi were already waiting for them.

"Where were you guys?" Abi asked rushing to hug them both.

"We were worried." Ben said closing the door behind Riley.

Chrissie sat on the bed and massaged her arm. "One of Ian's men chased after us."

"You're both ok right?" Ben asked concerned.

Chrissie nodded and Riley looked at her unconvinced. He could basically see the pain written all over her face. "Yeah, right. Except for the damn bullet graze Chrissie has on her arm."

"I'm fine." She gritted out glaring at Riley.

Ben came over and sat next to her on the bed as Riley went rifling through their suitcases. "Let me see." Ben said.

Chrissie rolled her eyes but moved her arm into his hands nonetheless and he carefully pulled back the bandages to look at her wound. "Doesn't look so bad, you won't need stitches."

"That's what I said, I'm fine. Except doctor Riley over there thinks otherwise."

"Where's the carry on bag?" Riley asked suddenly, ignoring Chrissie's comment. Abi motioned him to the left of the closet. He found it and pulled out a few aspirins for Chrissie.

"It could have been a lot worse." Abi said. "I'm glad you two are okay."

"We barely made it to the tourist group guy. Ian has people everywhere, he won't stop." Chrissie said taking the aspirin and water from Riley. "Maybe we should just go home."

"You really want that?" Riley asked. As Ben got off the bed Riley sat in his place. "To just stop and let your brother find your family's treasure when he sure as hell doesn't deserve it?"

Chrissie looked at him for a moment and looked down and shook her head. "No, but I don't want anyone to get hurt."

"Welcome to the treasure business." Ben quirked and Abi nudged him in the side.

Ben cleared his throat. "Why don't we get some lunch and then try and head to Thebes? Maybe Ian will think we've had enough for the day and not expect us to travel tonight."

Chrissie didn't say anything; she just nodded like everyone else. Ben and Abi went into their room to grab things they needed to head down to lunch and Riley got off the bed grabbing another t-shirt to change into.

He looked over to see Chrissie still on the bed. He sighed and went over to kneel in front of her. He placed a hand on her knee. "You okay?"

She nodded even though there were tears falling off her chin and landing on his hand. He got up from where he was kneeling and pulled her into his chest and she sobbed loudly. Riley stroked her back and whispered assurances even though they meant nothing because he wasn't sure what was wrong.

"What's wrong?" he asked her and he realized how stupid that question really was.

"If anyone gets hurt, it's going to be my fault." Her voice shook and more tears fell into his t-shirt.

He squeezed her tightly and ran his fingers through her hair. How could she possibly see that as her fault? "Chris, it wouldn't be your fault, you're not the one trying to kill us." He would have laughed if it wouldn't have upset her more. The funny thing was in the beginning he _had_ thought she was trying to kill them.

"But if we went home, he wouldn't hurt you."

"That's what you're worried about? Me getting hurt?" he tried to hide the fact that he was touched.

She shook her head trying to cover up the fact she'd spilled her emotions a bit too far. "And Ben and Abigail."

He nodded placing his head on top of hers. "Right, well I'll have you know Ian's tried to kill me before and he didn't. Basically I'm invincible."

It was so like him to make a joke out of everything and she couldn't help but laugh a little. He pulled her back and ran a hand over her face picking up the tears. "You okay?" he asked again.

She nodded and he smiled. "Good, now come on. You're gonna want to eat before we head to Thebes."

She shook her head heading over to the mirror in their room. "I'm not hungry." She parted her hair and started putting one of the sides in braids.

Riley scoffed stopping by the door. "Chrissie come on, you haven't had anything since breakfast. And that was half of my pancake!"

She shrugged and ignored him finishing the first braid and moving onto another.

"I know you can hear me." Riley prodded.

She ignored him again and he let out a frustrated sigh and left, shutting the door behind him. He wondered if the reason he liked her was because she kept playing hot and cold with him…and all he felt was heat because of it.

0o0o0o0o0o

Chrissie sighed finishing her hair and slipped into tan shorts, a light blue t-shirt with pink letters saying, "Ramones", and slipped on her sneakers. She checked her reflection in the mirror and realized how crimson her cheeks were but she wasn't surprised. She had just sobbed on Riley Poole's shoulder. She knew she wasn't the strongest person when it came to rough times but she still couldn't believe how much of an embarrassment she'd made herself. Maybe it was the desert heat or the fact that her brother was trying to kill her but for some reason, every time she looked into Riley's eyes she wanted to tell him everything. Like his body held some type of truth elixir and she couldn't resist it when he was near.

She didn't know what she was more afraid of. Having a brother who was trying to kill her or admitting to everyone she was in love with Riley Poole.

0o0o0o0o0o

Riley carried a bottle of coke and a container full of food for Chrissie off the elevator. He didn't care what she said, he was making her eat. He didn't want her to pass out from heat exhaustion and from lack of eating. He shook his head and paused to place to coke under his arm to open the door. He couldn't believe at the beginning of this thing he couldn't stand her and basically wanted the ground to open up and swallow her and her brother both. And now every time he walked into the room he wanted to kiss her. It was a weird sensation and he hadn't felt anything like it before.

He opened the door and saw Chrissie quickly hide something under her pillow. He raised an eyebrow and closed the door. "What was that?"

"Nothing. What's that?" she asked.

"Food. What were you doing?" he asked, she wasn't going to sway him from the conversation so quickly. He was nosy and there was nothing she could do about it.

"I told you I wasn't hungry Riley." She said a little miffed.

He just smiled at the fact he could make her so angry by caring about her. "And I told you I didn't care and that I was going to annoy you till you ate something."

She shook her head and moved farther on the bed, sitting on the pillow. "No you didn't. If you would have I would have locked the door."

"Zing." He said quietly and placed the food on the table. "What were you doing when I opened the door?"

"Nothing." She said again but she didn't budge from the bed. What she was hiding was under her pillow and he was determined to getting her off the bed.

"You know if you don't tell me I'll have to find out myself." He was never much of a negotiator.

She shrugged placing her arms over her chest. Riley nodded and practically jumped on the bed trying to pull her off the pillow. Chrissie giggled loudly in his arms trying to get him off. When he realized she was ticklish he poked and rubbed her sides with his fingers making her buck and laugh loudly.

"Riley stop! Stop!"

He shrugged almost getting underneath the pillow. "Hey, I tried to warn you."

She made one final attempt to get him off but he managed to grab what she had hid and he let her go realizing what it was.

"My book?" he asked. "You're reading my book?"

She looked down somewhat embarrassed and shrugged. "No."

He raised his eyebrows and waved the book in front of her face and she sighed rolling her eyes. "Yeah, I mean that's what you do with books right? Read them."

"Yeah I just never figured you, out of all people, would read it." He flipped through the pages and saw she had folded a page down, her bookmark he guessed, in the middle of the book. She was pretty far into it.

"Well, I mean I heard,—it's a good book." She said flustered.

"When did you start reading it?"

"I found it at the Gates. I started it and I couldn't put it down, so I borrowed it for the trip."

Riley closed the book and smiled. She had been reading his book in Ben's house, where all of their fighting had mostly occurred. Maybe she wasn't so hard to figure out.

He leaned in slowly and gave her a soft kiss on the lips and handed her the book back. She barely felt her hands grasp the book, all she could feel was her lips on fire. This was all her fault. If she hadn't let him know she had liked him by kissing him on the cheek he would have never kissed her on the lips. Or maybe he would have anyway.

She put the book down and leaned closer to him, placing a lingering kiss on his cheek. Riley wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her closer and finally connected his lips with her own. Their lips pushed and prodded until oxygen became an issue and they had to break apart.

"Is this all because I read your book up to chapter 10?" she asked smiling.

Riley nodded, playfully tugging on her braid. "Definitely. You should see what I do to women who get to Chapter 22."

She giggled as he leaned down on her and she was forced to lie on the bed. They kissed again until this time it was broken by a knock on the door.

"Do I have to get that?" he asked.

She shook her head. "As long as you're not expecting me to get it."

He nodded and picked himself up from the bed and went to answer the door. He hoped it wasn't Ben asking him if he wanted his leftovers or not. He opened the door and was suddenly met with a sharp pain hitting his ribs then his head.

Not Ben.

0o0o0o0o0o0o

ok obviously everyone knows it's ian :D and i intend Chrissie to be kidnapped. now that's in everyone's mind, anything specific you want to happen? happy to hear input:D


	8. Thebes

Chapter 8: Thebes

0o0o0o0o

"_Do I have to get that?" Riley asked._

_Chrissie shook her head. "As long as you're not expecting me to get it." _

_He nodded and picked himself up from the bed and went to answer the door. He hoped it wasn't Ben asking him if he wanted his leftovers or not. He opened the door and was suddenly met with a sharp pain hitting his ribs then his head._

_Not Ben._

0o0o0o0o0

Chrissie tried to run to Riley but was grabbed by two of Ian's men and shoved towards him. She struggled as best she could but she was nothing compared to the strength of two men. She also noticed they each had a gun ready in their other hand and she calmed down; she couldn't help Riley if she was dead.

"Ian please don't do this." She pleaded.

Ian took her by the arm and dragged her over Riley's form and down the hall. She tried jerking her head around to see if Riley was even waking up, but he wasn't moving.

"It's done Chrissie. Now quiet or the first thing I'll do when we get to Thebes is shoot you."

She was threatened, but only for a moment. "You need me Ian; I'm the only one who can open Osiris."

He turned back and smiled at her. It was sinister and chilling and it was something she never wanted to see on anyone's face again. "You stupid girl, don't you get it? Don't you see? I don't need you at all."

Chrissie's face was struck with realization. "I'm luring the others."

Ian nodded and put a hand on Chrissie's face which she violently shook off. "Now you're getting it. I just need the locket and the disc you got from Isis. And that Ben can bring to me."

When they got off the elevator she noticed that Ian turned around and made a quick motion with his hand making his men stop. She looked around confused and then realized why he had done it. Ben and Abigail were making their way across the hotel. But before she could call out to them a hand was roughly put over her mouth.

Her screams turned into whimpers as they got farther and farther away and she couldn't imagine what they were going to feel like when they found Riley unconscious on the floor. She prayed to God he wasn't dead, she didn't see him get attacked, all she heard was his grunt and when he hit the floor.

Tears pooled in her eyes but she refused to let them fall. Ian wouldn't see her weak, he didn't have the privilege.

0o0o0o0o0o

As they made their way around the corner to their rooms, Ben halted Abi suddenly.

"What is it?" she asked him.

He shook his head, looking ahead at their two rooms. "Something isn't right; Chrissie and Riley's room is open."

Abi looked ahead to see their door was cracked and followed Ben. When they got there Abi gasped to find Riley unconscious on the floor, a huge bruise near his hairline.

"Oh god…" she said quietly. She leaned down and shook his shoulders slightly. "Riley! Riley!"

Ben looked at Riley for a moment, anger and concern etching his face; he then looked around the room for Chrissie.

"I don't see Chrissie anywhere." He said. He then checked in the bathroom and even went to check in his own room.

"She's not here, this must have been Ian. Who else would take her and knock out Riley?" Ben questioned.

Abi nodded still trying to wake Riley. "Ben, he's not waking up." She said worriedly.

"Keep trying." Ben ordered and then felt his phone chirp in his pocket. He picked it up and barked a hello.

"Oh Ben, why so angry?"

Ben looked up from the phone. "Ian."

0o0o0o0o

"Ian. What did you do with Chrissie? Is she ok?" Ben asked now pacing the room.

Riley shifted in Abi's arms for a moment, squeezing his eyes shut and rubbing his temples. "What happened?"

"You don't remember?" Abi asked helping him sit up.

He shook his head. "No." He grabbed his head suddenly and groaned, rubbing his temples again. "But either I drank myself into oblivion or I got hit with an anvil."

"Is she ok?" Ben asked again and it got Riley's attention.

"Is who ok?" he asked Abi.

Abi looked at him for a moment and Ben stopped giving Riley a look of sympathy.

"Where's Chrissie?" he asked suddenly, being helped up off the floor.

Abi pulled him near the hallway. "Come on I've got ice in my room for your head."

Riley shook her off him and asked Ben directly. "Where's Chrissie?" he demanded. His voice was thick with emotion and worry and Ben couldn't bear not telling him.

"Ian has her Riley."

"Is she alive?" Riley asked worriedly. To hell with his blinding headache, ice could wait.

Ben nodded when Ian finally told him. "She's alive; she's with Ian and his men at the tourist group."

Ben looked to Abi and motioned for her to take Riley into the other room. She grabbed Riley's arm and tried to pull him. "Come on honey, let's get you some ice."

Riley looked at Ben one more time and nodded following Abi into their room.

"Why can't you just let her go Ian?" Ben asked.

"Oh please Ben; this is how it has to be. How am I going to have any control over you if there's no leverage?"

"You can have the locket, the disc, the treasure, anything. Just let the girl go." Ben pleaded for more of Riley's sake than his own. He couldn't shake the haunting feeling of Riley's face when he told him Ian had her.

"That's not how it works Ben and you know it. Meet me in Thebes in two hours or Chrissie here is going to become a permanent part of Tut's tomb."

Ben shook his head. "Nothing's agreed until you let me talk with her." At least then he could tell Riley he had heard her with his own ears and that she was ok. It wasn't much, but it was something.

He could practically hear Ian's eye roll and then a shifting of hands and finally he heard Chrissie's voice. "Ben?" her voice was shaking and he could tell she was scared to death.

"Hey Chrissie, you alright?"

She nodded even though Ben couldn't see it; maybe it was to remind herself that she was ok. "Yeah, I'm fine. What about Riley? Is he ok?"

Ben glanced outside the room and looked at his own door, wondering what the young man was going through inside it. "Yeah, he's ok, worried about you."

He could hear Chrissie sniffle. "Ben, tell Riley—"

But she was cut off and Ian came back on the line. "Is it settled then?"

Ben nodded. "You can count on it being settled Ian." And he wouldn't be happy when it was.

0o0o0oo

Abi sat Riley on the bed and turned towards the suitcases. She rummaged through them looking for the first aid kit they had bought. When she finally found it and pulled out an ice pack and broke the interior bag. She shook it and waited for it to cool.

When she turned around she saw Riley's head was down and his shoulders were hunched. Her heart broke in two when she realized he was crying. Riley Poole was _crying_. This was the wise ass that always made a joke out of everything serious or upsetting just to lighten the tension.

"Riley." She said quietly. "Ian won't win this."

"He's already won!" Riley snapped. "He knocked me out, he's taken Chrissie. Who knows what could happen to her." his voice caught and he stared at the ground.

Abi felt tears rise to her own eyes and turned to embrace the younger man. "I'm so sorry." She whispered into his hair and stroked his back. Riley was stiff for a moment but then relaxed into her hug and wrapped his arms around her torso, crying softly into her shoulder.

"_Ben." Riley pulled on the older man's forearm and tugged him aside. "I can't…"_

_Ben nodded understanding what Riley was trying to deny. It was a lot to put on someone. "She's your responsibility. Watch out for her." He said quietly._

This was all his fault. Chrissie was _his_ responsibility. He had let her down and he was determined to get her back, no matter what.

0o0o0o0o0o

Chrissie wondered how Ian dealt with himself sometimes. All he had to do was wave a finger, or really point a gun, and anyone would do anything he asked; without question. She wondered if anyone bothered to think if he was doing it for something right or something completely wrong. Sometimes he used his charm to get what he wanted and his eyes were always filled with good intentions, it was something she had always admired him for. But as she sat against the hard plastic of the tour guide's van she felt sick for once envying that trait.

"What's the matter beautiful? Cat got your tongue?" Ian leaned over and whispered in her ear.

"More like a conniving snake." She spat.

"Careful, careful." Ian looked at her quite entertained. "And most people think it's a nice quality to have. One you might be lucky to get some day."

"How can you stand yourself? How can you just betray everyone and it all be ok?"

Ian just shrugged and looked out the side of the van. "We'll be there soon."

Chrissie nodded. "Remember that book mom wanted us to read when we were little? _The Dante's Divine Comedy_ or something like that."

He didn't look at her but she could tell she held his attention. "You didn't want to read it so you went outside to play."

"I was eleven years old." Ian remarked. "How could she expect us to read that so young?"

"You'd be surprised. But I know you know this question, even though it's straight from the book. At the bottom of hell, the devil is frozen in ice and he's got three heads and three mouths. Now who's in the center mouth? He was redeemed the worst sinner in the world."

Now Ian looked at her and whispered. "Judas Iscariot."

Chrissie smirked and nodded. "That's right. The worst spot in hell is for those who betray… that's what mom wanted us to learn. You're taking it up quite nicely."

She shook her head and turned away from him; he had been so full of good intentions once.

0o0o0o0o0o

"So where is she?" Riley asked clearly not being able to sit still.

"Calm down, she's at the tourist station. Probably already left." Ben said.

"Then why are we here?" Riley asked. "Let's go."

Ben grabbed a hold on the younger man's arm and stopped him from leaving. "Look Riley chill—"

He yanked his arm free, surprising Ben. "Don't tell me to chill. She was my responsibility." He said plainly looking down.

Ben and Abi looked at him with sympathy and it just made him angrier. He walked out the door and waited for them to follow. For once he was taking the initiative, when he didn't people always seemed to get hurt or worse kidnapped.

0o0o0o0o0o

Chrissie's arm was held firmly in place as they descended the tourist van. She tried looking around for anyone that could help her but all there was yards of sand. She glanced back at the van and grimaced seeing the bodies piled up within it. She decided that her brother was no longer human, because someone human couldn't kill a van full of people headed to Thebes to see the attractions.

As they made their way across the miles of sand they reached The City of the Dead.

"How appropriate." She muttered being sat on a stone slab near one of the tombs. "What are we waiting for?"

Ian looked at her and then to something in the distance. "Them."

Chrissie jerked her head to the side and her heart jumped into her throat. Riley, Ben and Abi were heading this way in one of the tourists vans. Chrissie smiled when she saw Riley was driving, quite fast and recklessly, towards them.

It was about time he took some initiative.

0o0o0o0o0o

"Geez Riley, why couldn't you drive like this when we were trying to get the Declaration back?" Ben quipped holding onto the side of the van.

"If we would have let him drive like this we might not have been alive today." Abi squealed at the end of her sentence as Riley made a sharp turn heading down the hills of the sand.

"Bumpy bumpy." Riley muttered to himself switching gears.

"Do you always talk to yourself when you drive?" Ben asked.

Riley shrugged. "It's a coping mechanism for how much stress everyone puts me through for making me drive the vehicles."

Abi shook her head. "Well don't worry Riley. No one is letting, I mean forcing you to drive a car ever again."

Ben nodded and smiled. "Or a van for that matter."

"There it is!" Abi called out looking out the passenger side window.

Riley nodded and seemed to accelerate down the hill and pulled up next to where Ian and his men where standing. His heart jumped when he saw Chrissie, and without thinking he hurried out of the car to her.

"Ah ah ah." Ian said coolly. "Not so fast Riley."

Ian picked Chrissie up from the stone and put a gun against her head, making her whimper. Riley stopped almost instantly while Ben and Abi got out of the car and stood in front of him.

"We're all here for the same thing Ian, no ones going anywhere. Just let her go." Ben said.

"Let me see the disc and locket."

Abi took them out of her pocket and showed them to him. He motioned her to bring them foreword and hand them to him. Riley stopped her before she could move.

"Let me give them to him." Riley said softly; it wasn't a question. He needed to do this.

It seemed with every step Ian dug the front of the gun deeper into Chrissie's skull, making her whimper and cry out in pain. Like hearing her would assure Riley that Ian had the power here and not to try and do anything stupid.

Riley hesitated for a moment, taking smaller steps towards them. He finally handed them off to Ian and he threw Chrissie at Riley, almost toppling him over. He quickly pulled a crying Chrissie to the other side of the van and sat her down in the passenger seat while Ben and Abi took care of the other business of finding the treasure. In all honestly, he really didn't care about the treasure anymore. It cost too many people their lives, too many accounts where it was his.

Chrissie was near sobbing. She was taking big hiccupping breaths when Riley sat her down in the seat. She threw herself into Riley's arms almost instantly; just wanting to feel his strong soothing arms around her.

"I was scared." She said. Her voice felt like it was tearing from her throat.

Riley nodded and held her tightly against him. "I know, I know. It's ok, I'm here."

"I thought he was going to kill you." She said honestly.

He pulled back from her and smiled. "Didn't I tell you? I'm invincible."

She laughed a little and sniffled. He put a hand on her face and wiped her tears away. When he was about to pull his hand down, she caught it with her own and pulled him closer to her. She pulled him into a long passionate kiss that made her sweat in this desert heat.

Riley smiled, snaking an arm around her waist. "If I would have known how much I would have been missed, I would have left you out here a lot longer."

"Thanks for saving my life." She said rolling her eyes. "I'm guessing that's what you were fishing for."

He shrugged. "It's a start. But we're not out of the woods yet."

She nodded and he helped her out of the van. "You up for heading over there? We could wait till there done…" Riley said concerned.

Chrissie nodded and opened her hand for him to take it, which he did. "As long as you're with me?"

Riley looked at her with an 'are you kidding me face' and looked around the miles of sand. "Uh Chris, where the hell else would I go?"

She shoved him in his side as they headed to join behind Ben and Abi, who were in a heated conversation with Ian. Or at least they were, until Ian saw her and Riley show up behind them holding hands.

"Well, well, well." Ian said slowly drawing everyone's attention to Riley and Chrissie. "Couldn't you have done better?"

Riley looked offended and Chrissie sneered. "Right, like I'm really going to be asking your opinion on relationships."

Ian shrugged. "If you would have you would have done better than stick arms over there."

Riley scrunched his eyebrows. "I have stick arms?" he said to himself quietly.

Chrissie rolled her eyes and nudged him, stopping him from mumbling.

"He's good enough for me." Chrissie said quietly, giving Riley's hand a squeeze and he found himself smiling. "Even if he does have stick arms."

Riley's smile faded and he rolled his eyes. "You had to bring that up again didn't you? And there not stick arms there just…underdeveloped muscles." He mumbled.

"Can we just make it to the tomb please? Sometime today?" Ben spoke up and that was the first time Chrissie remembered they were even there.

Riley nodded as Ian gathered them up. He was in front while Ben, Abi, Chrissie and Riley were in the middle and Ian's men were in the back.

Ian removed the large stone slab over top of the tomb and bugs crawled out from underneath.

Riley grimaced and looked down into the deep dark cave like tomb. "So…who wants to dive head first into the bug slash mummy infested tomb first?" No one spoke up. "I vote Ian."

0o0o0o0o

ok how was this? hows Chrissie and Riley? i hope everyone is enjoying it! reviews and comments welcome :DDD


	9. Separating

Thanks for all the amazing reviews :D i'm glad you're enjoying it!

0o0o0o0o0

Chapter 9: Separating

Of course, since Riley couldn't keep his big mouth shut and voted Ian to go first he was pushed to the front. He should have thought twice before insulting the people with the guns, but then again his mouth always seemed to open with a sarcastic remark at the wrong times. He waited until Ian threw the rope into the tomb and descended slowly, the rope making his hands burn.

"Sure Riley, mutter something else sarcastic. You may get yourself shot." He mumbled as he lowered himself slowly into the tomb. When he reached the bottom, he yelled up to everyone that it was ok.

Chrissie went down next, followed by Ian, Ben and Abigail. Ian's men were the last to make it there and Ian handed a flashlight to Ben. Ben and moved his flashlight along the walls trying to figure out where they were as Ian placed the golden disc along the locket's chain and slipped it around his neck.

"Do you remember the layout of the tomb Riley?" Ben asked.

Riley tried to think back to his computer and looked at the items showing up on the wall. "I'm guessing were in the passage. It's the starting point of the tomb."

"And how far to the burial chamber?" Abi asked, holding onto Ben's arm.

"You mean feet and inches wise?" Riley asked sarcastically and Chrissie shoved him in the side. "Ouch, ok drill sergeant." He rubbed his side and Chrissie just smiled.

"We have to go through the annex and the antechamber…and the sealed doors in between each."

Chrissie walked over to wear Ben and Ian were standing and looked at the walls. So many paintings of gods and goddesses covered the walls. The paint seemed to look golden against the flashlights blare and she wondered if the actual gold shined just as bright.

She ran her hand gently across the surface. "It's beautiful…" she whispered.

Riley came up next to her and squeezed her other hand. "So are a lot of things."

Ian broke the moment by shoving each of them apart and put Riley ahead of everyone. "You first." He made it a point by pulling his gun back out and pointing it at him.

"Ian stop, he'll go first just put the gun away." Chrissie said worriedly. She didn't know what she would do if something happened and Riley got shot, by her _own_ brother. She didn't think it was something she could live with.

Riley grabbed her hand and held it. As everyone walked foreword he slowly kept pulling her up with him so she wouldn't be by herself. It also helped to have two people leading because it was pitch black, even with the flashlights. He couldn't see Chrissie let alone a sealed doorway or a trap of some kind.

He stopped for a moment feeling his foot slide down a hill.

"Wait. There seems to be a slant of some kind…." He trailed off moving his foot ahead of him.

Ian rolled his eyes thinking Riley was just stalling. After all he had made some comments along the way about seeing mummies and beetles that could eat your insides.

"Come on, let's go." Ian said rudely and shoved him foreword. Although this time Riley hadn't been lying and he fell foreword and felt the ground give away beneath him.

Chrissie screamed and tightly held onto Riley as he started to fall. She tried to pull him back up. But her strength was nothing compared to his, especially since he was falling. He threw her off balance and she flailed her arms grabbing onto Ian's shirt. Although Ian was just looking out for himself and tried to detach her before she pulled him too. But as he unhooked her hand from his shirt she managed to grab the locket's chain around his neck and pulled it with her as she fell.

0o0o0o0o

Everyone halted when they heard the ground give away. Ben pushed Ian aside and flashed his flashlight into the hole.

"Riley! Chrissie!" he called out but nothing answered him except his echo. The flashlight kept reflecting off something in the hole but it was dark and Ben couldn't tell what it was.

Ian stepped foreword careful not to fall into the hole and rubbed around his neck. "She got the bleeding chain."

Ben couldn't believe that was all he was worried about. He'd pushed his own sister into a hole, not even knowing her fate when he did so, and he was worried about the keys to the treasure.

"Maybe if you had pulled them back you'd still have the keys." Abigail said heatedly and Ben nodded.

"Well then, looks like Chrissie has gotten us into another predicament. We need to figure out another way down there. Now."

Ian stepped over the large hole and Ben, shaking with anger, did so as well. If Riley and Chrissie weren't ok, he'd be done with the treasure business. For good.

0o0o0o0o

Chrissie emerged from the water and tried to sense where the hell she was. She saw the flashlight light up against the water and she grabbed it looking around. She must have been in the Nile or at least something from the Nile. The Nile was on the side of Thebes, so it made sense that some of it could have flowed down into the underground part of the tomb. She pushed her hair out of her eyes.

"Riley?" she called out.

She heard him groan and she looked around her. She finally spotted him on the side of the water turning around on his back.

She crawled out of the water and went to his side, helping him up. "Are you okay?" she asked him and leaned him against the wall.

"I'm pretty sure that every bone in my body is broken." Riley commented as he stood and his back cracked. "But yes, I'm peachy."

"Where are we?" she asked shining the flashlight around. This part of the tomb resembled more of a cave. It was darker and cooler than the upper part had been.

Riley looked around as well and saw where they had fallen from the hole. It was at least seven feet above them and judging from the rocks on the side of the water they were lucky to be in one piece.

"Some lower part of the tomb." Riley said taking the flashlight from her.

He tried shining it across the water but it was too dark and too far away to see. He settled for shining it in front of them to find a walkway while Chrissie wrung the water out of her braids.

"No I mean like specifically where are we?" she asked.

Riley turned around and shined the flashlight in her face. "Right, I forgot I'm a walking tomb map."

She rolled her eyes and wrapped her arms around herself. "Whatever Riley. I just meant that if we don't even know where we are were never going to get out of here."

Riley walked towards her and saw that she was shaking. He forgot that she had fallen into water unlike he did. He took of his jacket and wrapped it around her shoulders. She pushed her arms into the too long sleeves and he zipped it up. He pulled her closer to him and he rubbed his hand along her arm trying to make her warmer.

"How are you even wearing a jacket?" Chrissie asked rubbing her face against Riley's chest. "It's like 104 degrees outside, you know that right?"

"Keep complaining, I'll take it back." He warned making her smile.

He shined the flashlight against the walkway again and shook his head. "You know it doesn't even matter if we find a way back up to the passage. Ian's got the only key that unlocks Osiris."

Chrissie lifted her head. "Oh yeah about that." She rolled up one of the sleeves of his jacket and revealed the locket and disc lying in her hand.

Riley grinned surprised. "How did you—"

"Looks like it pays to have a brother for a criminal."

He laughed and pulled her into a kiss. "Come on; let's find the treasure before your brother does."

0o0o0o0o0o

"I feel like Indiana Jones in _The Temple of Doom_." Riley said holding Chrissie's hand as they went through a small corridor.

"Ok…I'll bite." Chrissie said quietly. "How do you feel like Indiana Jones Riley? Please don't say you look like him, because let me tell you, you're far from it buddy."

Riley turned and stuck his tongue out at her, making her grin. "No and thank you. I just mean like caves, booby traps, and mummies."

"I think you have the wrong movie." Chrissie giggled. "That's _The Mummy_ you're thinking of genius."

Riley rolled his eyes and turned back around pulling her through the corridor. "You knew what I meant."

"Yeah I know…that you don't look like Indiana Jones _or _Rick O'Connell." Chrissie couldn't help at laugh at Riley's reaction.

"Keep pushing it." He said coyly. "When it comes time for me to save you from mummies I'll let them eat you."

Riley flashed his light up ahead and something sparkled. He didn't see it though and returned the light to the ground so they wouldn't step into another hole of some sort.

"Wait, Riley do that again." Chrissie said pointing at the wall.

He did so and it shined again. "What is that?"

"It's a sealed door." Chrissie said excitedly.

"Yeah, but to what room?" Riley asked coming up to stand behind her.

"Well there's no statue of Osiris so it can't be the burial chamber." Chrissie said studying the door. It was a huge stone door, bigger then they were. She observed it to be at least nine feet tall. The door had engravings throughout the entire thing and when she wiped the dirt and grime away the carving seemed to be in gold.

She pointed to the slot just above her eye level. "Is that for the disc?"

Riley looked at her for a moment and studied the door. Something seemed off about it but he couldn't quite place why and he nodded. "I guess so."

Chrissie pulled the disc off the chain and stuck into the slot. "Ready?" she asked.

Riley nodded. "As I'm ever going to be."

She stuck the disc in the slot and pushed it as far as it would go, but nothing happened.

"Well that was a dramatic effect letdown." She said, shifting from foot to foot.

"Wait, turn the disc."

She did so and he heard a clicking noise beyond the door. "It's a password locked door."

"So what's the password?" She asked.

Riley shook his head trying to think of the hieroglyphs on the disc and the clue that had come from it.

_Death and blood is hidden,_

_In his grasp; with his kin._

He ran over the last sentences of the poem over and over again in his head.

"His kin…his children." Riley said.

"What?"

"The last sentence of the clue off the disc; in his grasp, with his kin. Osiris's children."

"I know this." Chrissie said trying to regain the information off the tip of her tongue.

Riley waited patiently. "Come Chris, think."

"Patience is a virtue." She snapped and Riley shut his mouth before he got smacked again.

It took a minute or two but the information finally clicked into place. "Anubis was Set's son in some versions, but because Set became the god of evil, he was identified as being Osiris' son."

"That's my girl." Riley smiled proudly and kissed her forehead.

She turned the disc when Riley told her the symbol each letter stood for and they heard the locks and tumbles turn inside the door. It popped open slowly and dirt and dust rushed out of the room.

Chrissie coughed and covered her mouth with the sleeve of the jacket as Riley pulled the door open all the way.

Before they both went into the room Chrissie pulled the disc from the door and put it back on the locket chain. "You have any idea what room were in?"

"Unfortunately no." Riley said taking hold of her hand again.

As Chrissie stepped into the room first her foot instantly went through the floor. She screamed and Riley quickly pulled her back up before she could fall all the way through.

"You alright?" he asked.

She nodded. "What the hell was that?"

Riley bit his tongue on the sarcastic 'you fell through the floor' comment and tried to think of something else to say. "Knew opening that door was too easy."

"Thanks for having that thought _after_ I almost fell through the floor." Chrissie glared at him.

He ignored it and glanced along the walls seeing indents in them. He dipped his hand in one of them and pulled it back out. "Oil."

He reached into the pocket of his jacket and pulled out a lighter, gently dipping the flame into the crevasses in the wall. It only took a moment for the entire room to light up with fire and Chrissie shut her eyes at the sudden brightness.

When she opened them back up she glanced at where she had just fallen through the floor. "Wow, long way down. Thanks."

She looked up at Riley and he smiled lightly. "I'm still not saving you from mummies."

She rolled her eyes. "Aren't those hieroglyphs?" she asked looking at the floor in the next room.

He nodded. Hieroglyphs were on every single slab on the floor in the room. He could see the next sealed doorway across the room. But it looked like you had to spell something out to get across without falling through the floor.

He hoped he remembered the Egyptian Alphabet as well as he thought he did, or he and Chrissie would become a permanent attraction in Tut's tomb.

0o0o0o0o

review please:D thanks for reading!


	10. Burial Chamber

sorry this took so long. i'm getting discouraged from one of my other stories D: but enjoy this :D

0o0o0o0o0o

Chapter 10: Burial Chamber.

"Please tell me you remember the alphabet." Chrissie pleaded, squeezing Riley's hand.

Riley nodded and smirked slightly. "Yeah, the English one."

"Come on I'm serious."

"So am I, but yeah I think I remember the Egyptian one. Or at least I hope."

"Ok, so to step over these…it's got to be an answer right? Or a sentence of some kind? I mean it's not just listing the letters in order."

Riley nodded. "Especially since everyone knew the alphabet at the time, wouldn't be much of a trap that way. Look around for an inscription on the wall or door."

She nodded and looked left while Riley looked to his right. She finally saw something on the door, brushing off the huge cobwebs and dust. She sneezed as the dust irritated her nose and Riley turned at the sound.

"Find something?"

She nodded and looked at him. "Yeah, bless me." She said to herself.

Riley smiled, kissing her nose. "Bless you."

He took a look at the inscription and looked at her confused. "It's the same one on the locket."

"Enter all ye who seek knowledge?" she asked and he nodded. "What the hell does that mean?"

"Well obviously it's talking about the entrance. But it's either talking about the actual burial chamber itself or I don't know. It could be talking about something completely different."

Chrissie sighed thinking about the inscription and the tomb they were in. "Who seek knowledge…what kind of people were seeking knowledge at that time?"

Riley shrugged. "Priests, magicians, scholars…"

"There were scholars at that time?"

He nodded. "Yeah, mostly practitioners."

"Practitioners in that time were authorized to practice healing…"

"Yeah…" Riley said not really following where she was going with this.

"So to discover how to heal someone you'd have to know how they died. King Tut had been fascinated about learning about death and the afterlife. So what if he told a Practitioner that they had permission to study his corpse after he died."

"Enter all ye who seek knowledge." Riley echoed now understanding.

"Practitioner is the key to the puzzle."

0o0o0o0o

"You're not just going to get away with this Ian. You know that." Ben said as they went down another corridor. It was at least the seventh one they had been down and he prayed that they weren't lost. The Egyptians were sneaky in designing their tombs, so if they wanted you to get lost in hoping you wouldn't find the treasure, you'd get lost.

"Quiet Ben. I've heard enough of your yammering the past hour." Ian snapped quickly losing his patience. He stopped for a moment and turned. "And for your information I am going to get away with this, you know why? Because Riley and Chrissie are already gone, and that leaves me with two less bodies to worry about. You two are the only ones left, easy to take care of."

"Unless you're forgetting, Chrissie has the locket and disc."

"And if you're forgetting, I'll find her and take it back. Easy as that."

Ben shook his head; he wondered when Ian had become less of a person. "You're really willing to kill your sister over this treasure aren't you?"

Ian turned, going down the corridor. "Watch me."

0o0o0o0o

"Ok P…is..." Riley surveyed the ground looking for the right symbol. "Over there, that pan."

Chrissie nodded and took a step foreword. When she made sure that her foot ended on something solid, she let her weight down on the rock.

"R?" she asked.

"The lion."

She nodded and pushed her foot over her other to step on the lion. She almost lost her balance but Riley caught her arm and held her steady from behind. He was on the pan stone and she smiled, silently thanking him.

"Ok, um…" he let her go and rubbed his hand over his face in thought. "The eagle's next."

Chrissie nodded and stepped on the next slab in front of her. Although she stepped on the wrong bird and her foot went straight through the rock again. She cried in pain and fell to the floor.

Riley went onto the lion and was barely close enough to reach her.

"Are you okay?" she didn't say anything and tried pulling herself up through the hole. "Chrissie?"

She nodded and tears rolled down her cheek. "My ankles twisted pretty badly."

"Can you stand?" he asked.

She nodded and winced in pain as she pulled it up from the hole. "Yeah, hurts like hell though."

"We're almost there. Can you walk on it?" he tried gentling his voice to ease her pain a bit but he was fighting the urge to add frustration in his voice. They were fighting time to make it to the treasure before Ian, but he knew better than to piss Chrissie off.

"Yeah, next letter." His Chrissie was a trooper.

"The arm and then the bowl." Riley said, stepping onto the eagle as she moved.

They finally made it all across the floor without falling through it.

"Last one?" Chrissie asked.

"Lion again."

"There is no lion." She said looking around.

"There has to be that's the last letter."

"Well I'm telling you there's not Riley. There's a frog, a reef and an eagle, and I'm not stepping on the damn eagle again."

"Technically you stepped on the falcon last time and that's why you fell through the floor." Riley added making Chrissie turn around and glare at him. He made a zipping motion on his mouth and glanced ahead of her.

"You're almost at the door; you'll have to jump to the landing."

"Jump?" she asked.

He nodded looking at her a bit sympathetically. She shook her head and took a deep breath. She was only a few inches away from the landing but her ankle was throbbing. If she didn't jump high enough or landed on her ankle the wrong way she could land through the floor entirely.

"Ok…" she muttered.

She backed up as much as she could on the square she was on, which was less than an inch back, and used her good foot to propel her foreword. She landed on both her feet on the landing but as she landed her one ankle wouldn't hold her up and with a cry of pain her legs gave way beneath her. But at least she made the landing.

Riley followed her and jumped as well, landing right beside her. He knelt down and took a look at her ankle, it was swollen. "Are you ok?"

She nodded but her lower lip quivered and tears welled up in her eyes. He wiped some of the tears away with his thumb and put her arm around his shoulders and lifted her up from the floor.

"Come on…" he mumbled, helping her walk. He kissed her on the side of her head and went towards the door.

"Another clue?" she asked.

Riley shook his head. "No, Chrissie…we've made it to the burial chamber."

0o0o0o0o

please R&R...it's much appricated!


	11. Tomb

i'm really sorry this is short. i've had alot to do and write lately :O but enjoy this! the next chapter will be longer!

0o0o0o0o

Chapter 11: Tomb

0o0o0o0

"_Another clue?" she asked._

_Riley shook his head. "No, Chrissie…we've made it to the burial chamber." _

0o0o0o0o

"Seriously?" she asked looking past Riley and at the door.

"No, I'm being a smartass." Riley replied sarcastically and she glared at him.

"Wouldn't be the first time."

"It doesn't seem like this one opens with one of the keys." Riley said studying the door.

"And that's bad?" Chrissie asked.

"No, just…easy."

Chrissie nodded looking for the handle to pull the door open. "Okay, glass half empty."

Riley rolled his eyes and helped her pull the door open. When it was open Riley lit the crevasses in the walls again with the lighter causing the whole entire room to light up.

"Wow." Chrissie breathed. "It's beautiful."

There was baskets full of earthy possessions and even Tut's tomb was encrusted with gold. There was a canopy over where his sarcophagus was and it had beautiful stitching. The floor was filled with carpets of maroon, sky blue and emerald green. She guessed there was gold in the small stitching as well, because the floor seemed to glitter.

"Yeah kings defiantly had it on the good side." Riley said looking around. As he looked at the hieroglyphs on the ceiling he tripped over something on the floor and landed with a thud. He was holding Chrissie up so she fell right on top of him.

"Smooth." Chrissie smiled.

"What the hell did I trip over?" he asked looking around.

She picked up a smaller sarcophagus leaning against Tut's. "Looks like his cat." She said bringing it over near Riley.

"Don't bring that near me!" Riley said squirming.

"It's just a dead cat. What happened to kings had it on the good side?" Chrissie laughed.

"That's before I remembered their cats always got screwed in the deals." Riley said looking over at where Chrissie put the sarcophagus down. "Poor kitty." He mumbled.

Riley shook his head looking at Chrissie. "Too bad we have a treasure to find, this rugs really comfy."

Chrissie smiled leaning down to kiss him. "Not to mention my brothers trying to kill us."

"Way to ruin the mood Chrissie…" he was cut off by her lips moving over his. He embraced her for a few moments letting all the stress and worrying flow out of him. All he wanted to do was focus on her lips touching his.

When the kiss was over Chrissie pushed herself up and waited for Riley to give her a hand standing.

"Ankle still hurt?" he asked.

She shrugged trying to stand on it. "It's not so bad, I should be okay."

He nodded and held her hand as they looked for the statue of Osiris. "There." Riley said and pointed to the statue. It was looming over them, at least nine feet tall.

"How in the hell did they get it in here?" Riley asked looking over it.

"We can read 'the about pamphlet' after we get the treasure okay?" she asked making him stick his tongue out at her.

She realized that's all Riley knew how to do when it came to flirting. Sticking his tongue out ands making wise ass remarks. _Enough to make any girl swoon_, she thought sarcastically. But maybe she should be eating her own words. She'd fallen for him, hadn't she?

"Here stick the disc into there." He said motioning to Osiris's chest. He looked above the disc slot and saw there was a place for the open locket too. "And the locket there."

She got the items out and put them in the appropriate slots.

Riley shook his head. "No stick it there." He said taking her hand.

"I'll tell you where to stick it." She mumbled and Riley dropped her hand. He smiled slightly as she put the pieces into the statute. She never did like being told what to do.

She pushed the locket into the statue and turned the disc and the chest of Osiris popped open. Riley pulled one side open as she pulled the other and they both stepped inside. Chrissie gasped. Millions of rubies and gold filled the entire room. There were statues of gods and goddesses, headdresses and chariots engraved in golden writing. Chrissie could close her eyes and the glittering of the room would still be bright.

As they made their way down the stairs Riley grabbed hold of Chrissie's hand. "We found it."

"Nice job." Someone said behind them. They whirled around to see Ian and his men. "I think I'll take it from here."

0o0o0o0o

Chrissie looked behind him. "Where's Abi and Ben?"

They showed up behind Ian, both being held by a guard.

Ian raised a gun at Riley and Chrissie and they froze on the spot. Riley looked to Chrissie.

"You know, I'm really tired of being shot at." He said not amused.

"Right now isn't the right time for you to be a smartass Riley." Chrissie said quickly looking at Ian.

"I'm proud of you Chrissie." Ian said moving towards them. "You found the treasure."

"I hope you don't think there's a likewise going to be added in there somewhere. What am I going to add? Likewise Ian, I'm proud of you for trying to kill me?" She spat.

"Chrissie…" Riley said nudging her. "Please try and not piss off the person who's holding gun okay?" he asked her quietly.

Ian cocked the rifle and Riley held Chrissie's hand tightly.

"We both know it was coming to this Chrissie. We can't all get out of here alive."

Chrissie thought about his words as a shot rang out against the walls.

He was right, not everyone was getting out there living. It was a tomb after all.

0o0o0o

just in case any one was wondering. King's cats in ancient Egypt were killed and put in sarcophagus's just like i said. They were considered earthy possesions and were killed so the King could have a pet in the after life. Riley's right though, poor kittys...

kittys are mummified if you don't review :D plus theres only one more chapter after this D:


	12. Better than gold

last chapter D: enjoy!

0o0o0o0o

Chapter 12: Better than gold.

Chrissie gasped and closed her eyes as the shot rang out and vibrated off the tomb walls. As the tomb grew quiet again she opened her eyes and looked to Ben and Abi, they were alright. She then looked at Riley. He was cowering on the floor, but he was okay.

"What the hell...?" she asked.

"Consider that a warning." Ian said looking around at the treasure. "Next time, I won't miss." He walked past them for a moment and picked up a few golden knickknacks.

"A warning…" Riley was muttering, standing up. "I love how a warning has to be a gunshot close to my head."

"You alright?" Riley asked now looking at Chrissie.

"I wasn't cowering on the floor…but yeah I'm okay."

"I wasn't cowering." Riley said offended. "That wasn't fear at all…that was…precaution."

Chrissie broke into a small smile even though the situation was dire and ruffled his hair. "Whatever, Indiana."

Riley could always make her smile when the situation wasn't the best. She guessed it had something to do with when he was upset or scared. He tended to be on the sarcastic side and it made her smile and feel better even though he didn't. She grabbed his hand and squeezed it, kissing him on the cheek. She hoped that made him feel a little at ease.

"Tie them up…except Chrissie." Ian ordered now pointing to his men.

His men nodded and jerked Ben and Abi to the side of the tomb, placing ropes around their hands and waists. One of them then grabbed Riley and he struggled as one took hold of Chrissie as well.

"Hey, don't touch her." Riley grit as he was pulled to the side along Ben and Abi.

Chrissie now was taken by Ian and he put a death grip on her arm, making sure she couldn't go anywhere.

"Let her go." Riley said angrily. He was no match, unfortunately, for Ian's men. He was skinny and somewhat non- muscular. He remembered when Ben said that he couldn't win a fight with a kindergartner. He had been fooling around, but having muscles would really come in handy at a time like this.

"She'll be okay." Ben said trying to calm Riley down. Ian didn't need them anymore and if they acted up they could get shot or worse they could get killed.

Abi nodded, putting a comforting hand on Riley's forearm as he was being tied down with them. "She'll be okay."

"How can you say that?" Riley asked, struggling against the ropes. "Her brothers a raging psychopath with a loaded gun."

Ben glanced at Ian and Chrissie. Luckily he was pulling her away from earshot. Ben jerked back and hit Riley but before he could complain he interrupted him.

"Riley you're panicked and I understand but if you don't shut up you could get Chrissie seriously hurt. You need to calm yourself down, right now." Ben spoke quickly and Riley nodded.

Ben understood how he was feeling, if he and Abi were in their situation he'd be doing the same thing. He loved Abi like Riley loved Chrissie and he'd do anything to save her. It was safe to assume Riley felt the same way and he knew how doing nothing must have been killing him.

0o0o0o0o

"I don't know what the hell you think is going to happen Ian." Chrissie said as he jerked her to the side. She tripped over a golden sphinx and fell roughly into a pile or rubies and coins.

"Well first off, get rid of all of you and take the treasure for myself."

Chrissie smirked. "Right. You keep saying that but as I look over there, none of us are dead yet."

Ian smiled. "Well, I wanted you to be the first, seeing as how we're family and everything."

"You won't get away with this."

"Like how I got away with this so far?" he questioned. He grabbed her one arm and pulled her up. "Come on, I have something to show you."

0o0o0o

Chrissie was now out of Riley's eyesight and he started to squirm against the ropes. Luckily, Ian's men were as stupid and brainless as they looked and started roaming away from the captives to look at the treasure and stuff as much as they could into their pockets.

"Where are your hands?" Riley whispered the Abi.

She moved slightly and pushed her arms back and connected hands with Riley.

"Can you reach the ropes?" he asked her. Ben heard this and tried to crane his neck to look at him.

"What are you doing?" Ben asked looking to Ian's idiots. They had no clue any of them were talking.

"Abi can reach the ropes around my hands and loosen them." Riley whispered and tried moving his hands.

"Stop moving." Abi ordered. "You could end up tightening them."

Riley did what he was told and sat there. Ben spoke up again. "What do expect to do Riley? You could get yourself killed."

"I can't let her get hurt Ben. I just can't okay?" His voice trembled a little and Ben just nodded. He could tell Riley cared for her a lot. It was funny how you didn't have to know someone that well to care a whole lot for them.

"I got it." Abi said pulling her hands back.

Riley nodded. "You guys stay here and if Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dumb over there notice I'm gone, do something about it okay?"

Ben and Abi nodded. It was so unlike Riley to take lead and give orders like he was doing. Ben was proud of him, although it took how many years for him to do it. He guessed it just took a certain situation for him to act on it. Like his only girlfriend getting captured and almost killed by her own brother. Ben guessed it would anger a lot of people…especially Riley.

0o0o0o

Chrissie stumbled along as Ian pulled her. They went to the end of the tomb and Chrissie could see a pit. He pulled her to the edge and she stopped short to avoid falling in.

"This pit was designed for traitors. When the king's men were filling the tomb and they had other thoughts for what to do with the treasure, they were thrown in here."

Ian pushed Chrissie to kneel. She tried to back up against him but he nudged her foreword till she was at the pit's edge.

"Thought you ought to know that for future reference." Ian said as he leaned back and loaded his gun.

0o0o0o

Riley moved his way in between piles of gold and statues trying to move as quickly as he could to wear Chrissie and Ian were. He hid behind another Osiris statue and peeked his head out to watch them and try and figure out what his best move was.

"Ian please, don't do this. You really hate me this much? That you can kill your own sister."

"It has nothing to do with hate." Ian countered and cocked his weapon. "It has to do with wanting things in life Chrissie. And I want this treasure. When they took me away to prison, they took all my things away from me. I just want it all back, to be surrounded by beautiful and expensive things. I'm selfish that way."

0o0o0o0o

Abi and Ben untied their ropes and sat there, waiting to make sure Ian's men were still preoccupied. But they looked over and noticed Riley was up and about.

"Hey!" one of them yelled.

That's when Abi and Ben sprung into action and started throwing punches before they could take out their weapons.

0o0o0o0o

Ian turned at the noise and Chrissie took that opportunity to turn around and run at his legs. She knocked Ian over with a yell coming from his mouth and a loud thud on impact. His gun went off in the direction of the ceiling and Chrissie placed her arms over her head as debris and rocks fell.

Riley charged as Ian got up and pushed him over again.

"Riley!" Chrissie yelled trying to pull Ian off of him. Ian had his hands wrapped tightly around Riley's neck. She was no match for him and when she tried pulling him off Riley with all she could he turned around and backhanded her, sending her sprawling.

When he did that Riley kicked Ian foreword using his knee and it distracted Ian long enough that he took his hands off his neck. Riley pushed him off and stood, going to Chrissie.

She was leaning on her side and she felt her bottom lip. Blood was coming from her open cut on her lip and she winced when she ran her tongue over it. Riley knelt down beside her, taking her chin in his hand.

"You okay?" he asked her.

She nodded and looked up at him. Her eyes suddenly widened. "Look out!"

Riley turned just in time for Ian to knock him in the head with a small cat statue. Riley fell to the side as Chrissie gasped.

"Why do you always have to be so difficult Chrissie?" Ian screamed and bent foreword to grab her. Out of instinct Chrissie pushed her leg forward and kicked him as hard as she could. He jerked back and fell towards the pit. But just as he fell into it Chrissie grabbed his hand and held onto him tight.

He looked her in the eyes. "Don't you dare drop me." Ian seethed, pulling on her arm.

"You're slipping." Chrissie said helplessly as she pulled onto him. She struggled to pull him up but he was heavier then she was. "Stop scrambling." She said to him but he didn't.

"Please Ian just…"

She didn't get a chance to tell him anything because he pulled her down while he tried to pull himself up. She screamed and fell forward. She closed her eyes as she braced herself for falling but someone caught her from behind. Riley held her around her waist as tightly as he could. But the sudden jerk to pull her back was too much for Ian and he lost Chrissie's hand and fell. The sudden weight was lifted and Riley pulled Chrissie up and she landed on her back on his chest.

She scrambled to the edge of the cliff, looking over it. Like her brother would somehow still be there. She placed her hand over her mouth as sobs spilled from her. Ian had been a bastard, _less_ than a human being when it came to everything. But he was still her brother.

Riley crawled over to her pulling her back from the edge. She collapsed into his chest and sobbed loudly into his shoulder. He held her tightly and kissed her head, whispering nonsense that could only comfort a percent of what she was feeling. She pushed herself closer to him and buried her head in his shoulder. It was barely enough.

Riley turned his head to see Ben and Abi make their way over to them. They stopped when they saw Riley holding Chrissie. Ben just nodded and took Abi's hand. They all had had enough of Egypt.

0o0o0o0o

_Four weeks later._

Riley picked up some of the boxes and placed them in Chrissie's living room.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Riley asked, placing his arms around her waist.

"Why wouldn't I?" she asked.

"Well moving from one crap- apartment to another might not be such a good thing."

She turned to face him. "Your apartment is crappy?"

He shrugged. "Well, I mean I think it's livable. Although, the maid has forgotten to come back and place those little tiny mints on the pillows."

She smiled placing a small kiss on his lips. "I'm just saying are you so sure you're ready for this?"

She shrugged. "Why wouldn't I be?"

Riley's voice turned somewhat serious. "You know why."

"Look, Ian was my brother and I kind of had to love him. But what he did to you and to everyone, its something I can't forgive him for." She looked at Riley and looked down. "I must sound like a really horrible person, especially since he died."

Riley grabbed her chin and brought it closer to his face. He wrapped an arm around her waist and held her tightly to him. "Horrible is one of the last words I'd describe you with."

She smiled and kissed him. When it ended he brought her into a snug hug.

"Can't believe I'm moving in with you." Chrissie said pulling away.

"Yeah, especially since you were so annoying when we first met." Riley said, moving out of her way before she could smack him.

"_I_ was annoying?" she asked unconvinced.

He nodded, sitting on her couch. "Oh yeah. Your loud music, taking my shower time…"

"Well we share shower time now." Chrissie said her smile growing slower on her face.

Riley put a finger to his lips before he could smile. "You interrupt me, your snoring is absurd." Now he did smile because the look on her face was priceless.

"I'm not even loud." She said trying to feign being hurt.

Riley nodded and laughed. "You're like freight train running through the house."

Chrissie shook her head, now plopping down next to him. "I hate you, you're mean."

Riley cocked his head to the side and smiled. "No, not mean. Honest."

She shrugged and he leaned closer to her and eventually laid her down on the couch and rested on top of her.

She shook her head. "I still hate you."

"Well I can't do anything about that." He said smiling. "But I'm pretty sure I love you."

She smiled widely as he leaned down and kissed her. Suddenly it didn't matter how much treasure they had gotten from the tomb and how much they had spilt it with Ben and Abi. Because what they had here…was better than gold.

0o0o0o0o

i hope everyone enjoyed, thanks for the amazing readers and reviewers!

plus, i'm thinking of doign a sequel, what do you all think?

any ideas?


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